Canadians buy $9.7B of foreign stocks and bonds in July

Canadians bought more foreign stocks and bonds in July than they have in more than seven years, Statistics Canada said Thursday.

Purchases of foreign securities by Canadians jumped to $9.7 billion during the month, the data agency said Thursday. That's the largest monthly figure since April 2007.

At the same time, foreign investors acquired $5.3 billion of Canadian securities during the month.

So far this year, Canadians have bought more than $25 billion worth of foreign stocks, especially non-U.S. ones. That's more than fourteen times the amount they bought during the same period in 2013.

By contrast, foreign investors have bought $21.5 billion worth of Canadian stocks so far in 2014. That's are marked reversal from the trend in the first seven months of last year, when foreigners sold off some $1.6 billion worth of Canadian stocks.

Foreign investors have now bought up Canadian stocks for 11 straight months — seemingly taking advantage of a strong Canadian stock market, which is up by 12.5 per cent since the start of the year.

Foreigners are also likely benefitting from a weaker Canadian dollar this year, which makes good Canadian stocks cheaper for them to buy.