Foreign investment in Canadian securities hits 11-month low

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Foreign investment in Canadian securities dropped to an 11-month low in November, with non-residents buying a net C$7.24 billion ($5.44 billion) worth of bonds, stocks and money market paper, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. The purchases were the lowest since the C$1.78 billion recorded in December 2015. Investment for the first 11 months of the year hit a record C$149.53 billion, well above the C$104.24 billion amassed from January to November in 2015. Foreign investors bought C$5.45 billion in stocks, most of it accounted for by purchases on the secondary market. Canadian share prices rose by 2.0 percent in November. Non-residents bought C$2.93 billion in bonds, down from C$6.27 billion in October. They sold C$1.13 billion in money market paper after purchasing C$7.69 billion the previous month. Canadians sold C$7.87 billion in foreign securities, largely through sales of U.S. instruments. It marked the first divestment since January 2016, when they disposed of C$15.46 billion. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Bill Trott)