Mutual fund net sales for July were a $152.6 million, beating earlier estimates, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada said Monday.

Based on a sample of preliminary data from some of its members, IFIC previously estimated that net sales for July would be somewhere between redemptions of $440.7 million and positive net sales of $59.3 million.

July sales strongly rebounded from net redemptions of $116 million in June, and were well ahead of net redemptions of $1.52 billion recorded in July 2009.

Long-term funds led the way in July with $1 billion in monthly net sales, partly offset by $852.1 million in redemptions from money market funds. Long-term sales were down slightly from June, which saw $1.13 billion in net sales, and well down from the $1.8 billion of sales generated in July 2009. However, money market redemptions were also down compared with the June ($1.25 billion) and July 2010 ($3.32 billion).

Balanced funds were the best selling asset class in July with net sales of $1.21 billion, down a bit from June when sales were $1.32 billion. This was evenly split between the domestic balanced category ($600.8 million) and the global balanced category ($608.5 million).

Equity funds continued to see net redemptions, which totalled $1.04 billion in July, up from net redemptions of $651.1 million in June and $385.4 million in July 2009. IFIC says that the increase in equity net redemptions was due mostly to the global & international equity category, which had $472.9 million in net redemptions in July.

Fixed income funds had net sales of $850.9 million, up from June ($475.9 million) but down from July 2009 ($1.1 billion).

TD Asset Management was the top selling company on an overall basis in July, followed by Dynamic Mutual Funds and CIBC Asset Management. RBC led the long-term sales however, beating out TD and CIBC.

IFIC also reported that mutual fund assets totaled $607.8 billion at the end of July, up $16 billion or 2.7% from June. Assets have increased by $12.6 billion, or 2.1%, since the beginning of the year, IFIC reported; and by $51.1 billion, or 9.2%, since July 2009.

Pat Dunwoody, vice president of member services and communications with IFIC, says that 94% of the industry’s asset growth over the past year is due to improved market performance, “with equity funds driving the bulk of the increase.”

“These results emphasize the primacy of market performance over sales to industry growth and the benefits that can accrue to investors who stay the course,” she says.

IE