‘Time Is Right’ for Canadian Equity Mutual Funds to Come Home
‘Time Is Right’ for Canadian Equity Mutual Funds to Come Home
(Bloomberg) -- The diversification of Canadian mutual funds from the domestic equity market has been a winning strategy for the past decade. But now, it’s time to come home.
That’s the message from CIBC World Markets analysts led by Ian de Verteuil who said that the prolonged period of underperformance of Canadian stocks makes them cheaper than their U.S. counterparts by about two to three times on an earnings multiple basis.
“The reality is the biggest challenge for Canada’s stock market is not foreigners selling Canadian equities, it is Canadians selling Canadian equities,” de Verteuil said.
About 20% of all equity assets in Canadian mutual funds are now in foreign stocks, compared with 12% at the start of the current decade, according to an Oct. 8 CIBC report. “This is despite some relatively clear changes, which suggest the ‘quality’ of the S&P/TSX Composite is improving,” de Verteuil said in the note.
The S&P 500 Index has gained about 170% in the past 10 years, while Canada’s benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index rose about 40% in local currency terms, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
There are three “significant changes arguing in favor of the quality” of Canada’s key stock gauge:
- A handful of domestic “oligopolies” in Canada consistently outperform the broader market and these have increased in weight over several decades, de Verteuil said and pointed to banks, rails, telcos and grocers making up well over 35% of market value compared with 20%-25% in the 1990s
- Canadian public companies are returning more capital to shareholders, about 4% to 5% of the benchmark’s market cap annually -- “one of the higher levels on record.”
- A smaller proportion of S&P/TSX earnings are sensitive to volatile oil and natural gas prices
While the lack of “meaningful exposure” to some sectors and the need to invest in other countries with better growth prospects are valid reasons to diversify, CIBC argues that “the shift to foreign equities within mutual funds has run its course and mutual fund portfolio managers should begin to repatriate some of their foreign equities.”
--With assistance from Courtney Dentch.
To contact the reporter on this story: Divya Balji in Toronto at dbalji1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Madeleine Lim at mlim131@bloomberg.net, ;David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Thorpe
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