Foreign investment in Canadian securities stays strong in September

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Foreigners bought C$11.77 billion ($8.78 billion) worth of Canadian securities in September, setting a new record for investment for the first nine months of the year, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.

Nonresident investors snapped up C$11.48 billion worth of bonds, primarily in new issues placed abroad by Canadian private corporations. They also bought C$5.69 billion worth of stocks while selling C$5.40 billion in money market paper.

Foreign purchases of Canadian securities from January to September hit an all-time high of C$119.92 billion, much greater than the C$82.37 billion amassed in the first nine months of 2015.

"Most of this increase reflected higher foreign investment in Canadian equities, mainly resulting from cross-border mergers and acquisitions activity," Statscan said in its daily bulletin.

At the same time, Canadians invested a net C$1.81 billion in foreign securities. Purchases of non-U.S. foreign shares hit C8.64 billion, the highest monthly total since December 2000, but were largely offset by sales of bonds and U.S. equities.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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