OTTAWA, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian securities in June, the first monthly divestment since July 2015, driven by sales of Canadian government bonds, data from Statistics Canada showed on Wednesday.
International investors sold C$923 million ($724.8 million) in Canadian securities in June, after buying C$29.4 billion in May.
Since the beginning of the year, foreign investors have bought C$99.6 billion in Canadian securities, compared with C$92.5 billion in the same time period last year.
Foreign investors sold C$2.6 billion in Canadian bonds in June, including a C$12.3 billion divestment in Canadian dollar-denominated instruments. Foreign acquisition of private corporate bonds, mainly new bonds placed in foreign markets, moderated overall divestment.
Investors picked up C$1.7 billion in Canadian equities, even as stock prices were down 1.1 percent in the month.
Canadian investors bought C$13.2 billion in foreign securities in June after increasing their holdings in May.
This was led by a C$15.3 billion increase in holdings of foreign stocks, the first such increase since March.
Since the beginning of the year, Canadian investors have bought C$34.1 billion of foreign shares, compared with sales of C$1.8 billion in the same period in 2016. ($1=$1.2734 Canadian)
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