The Financial Post reports in its Thursday, June 18, edition that since the main trend in bond yields has been down since 2009, defensive yield stocks such as pipelines, utilities, REITs and telecoms have managed to outperform the broader market. The Post's Jonathan Ratner writes that bond proxies have risen 125 per cent since the market's 2009 lows, versus a gain of 95 per cent by the S&P/TSX composite index. However, with bond yields rebounding this year, the defensive segment has become the worst performer on the TSX, which has Martin Roberge, portfolio strategist at Canaccord Genuity, wondering if that has created a buying opportunity or a trap. Based on mutual-fund flows in the Canadian equity space, he sees more weakness ahead for bond proxies. Defining defensive flows as those going into balanced (50 per cent stocks) and dividend/income equity funds, momentum is trending downward for both. Mr. Roberge notes that net redemptions of $1.4-million for dividend/income funds in 2015 so far mark the first such pullback in several years. He further notes the strong correlation between the trend in defensive fund flows and the relative performance of bond proxies. He says it is not a "pretty picture."