Foreigners bought a record amount of Canadian treasury bills in July as they resumed large overall purchases of Canadian securities, eyeing the contrast between the country's sound economy and fiscal state and the global economic crisis. Statistics Canada said on Friday foreigners purchased a record C$7.3 billion ($7.4 billion) in money market paper, the highest since C$5.8 billion in March 2009. The bulk of the July acquisitions was a record C$5.9 billion in treasury bills. Overall, foreigners bought C$11.8 billion in Canadian securities. They had sold C$3.5 billion in June, breaking a string of purchases dating back to March 2010. "Today's positive print reinforces the relative attractiveness of Canadian assets to foreign portfolios. For some time, Canada's macro fundamentals stood out from its G7 peers and investors flocked to this country to invest in its assets," Mazen Issa, Canada macro strategist at TD Securities, said in a note to clients. "While we are not a traditional safe haven for investors - our markets are not as liquid as the US - the implication is that this interest will likely help provide a decent bid to the Canadian dollar and other asset classes." Issa said the reason for the short-dated purchases was probably concern over the global economy. Foreigners acquired C$2.0 billion in bonds, adding corporate bonds while selling Canadian government bonds for a second month. They also added C$2.5 billion in stocks, mostly the result of Canadian acquisitions of foreign firms and the resulting issue of Canadian shares to foreign shareholders of the firms that were bought. Canadians made net purchases of C$1.3 billion in foreign securities in July, buying U.S. stocks but selling U.S. government bonds, especially mid- to long-term instruments. ($1=$0.98 Canadian) (Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)

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