Investors mainly focused on large-cap tech stocks and index investment funds, the report notes.
The large inflows to US stocks in March followed purchases of US stocks worth $ 12.3 billion in February.
Institutional investors, mainly pension funds and mutual funds, also bought $ 3.8 billion of non-U.S. Foreign stocks in March, the national statistics agency said.
Canadian investors also added $ 5.6 billion worth of foreign bonds in March.
The $ 21.2 billion invested in foreign securities in March followed $ 13.1 billion in February and $ 3.1 billion in January, Statistics Canada noted.
In fact, after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic that triggered a record divestment in March 2020, Canadian investors have acquired a total of $ 122.8 billion in foreign securities since May 2020, he reported. .
At the same time, foreign investors bought $ 3.2 billion of Canadian securities in March, also mostly stocks.
Investors bought $ 10.6 billion in Canadian stocks during the month, up from $ 9.5 billion in February. However, they also got rid of $ 7.3 billion in Canadian debt.
“After focusing on Canadian bank stocks in February, foreign acquisitions mainly targeted trade and transportation stocks, as well as non-bank financial sectors in March,” StatsCan said.
Overall, portfolio flows resulted in a net outflow of $ 18.0 billion from the Canadian economy in the month, bringing the first quarter total to $ 24.7 billion, the highest amount high since the fourth quarter of 2007, he said.
