Mutual fund net sales were strong in January, according to the latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC). So strong, that even equity funds generated positive net sales.

The industry recorded total net sales of $5.41 billion in January, up from $1.87 billion in December, and $2.64 billion in the January 2012.

Once again, mutual fund sales were positive on the long-term side, but money markets saw redemptions. Net sales of long-term funds totaled $6.29 billion in January, but money market funds reported net redemptions of $879.5 million for the month.

Balanced funds were the top selling asset class, with net sales in January of $4.10 billion, which is more than double their total the previous month and in January 2012.

The other category that saw a notable improvement was equity funds, which had positive net sales in January of $272.5 million, compared to net redemptions of $1.2 billion in December, and redemptions $1.1 billion in January 2012. Nevertheless, the category has still seen negative net sales of $12.8 billion over the past 12 months.

Bond funds also saw a gain, albeit a more modest one. They recorded net sales of $1.3 billion in January, up from $1.12 billion in December, but this is down from $2.4 billion in January 2012.

Specialty fund sales almost doubled to $615 million in January.

Total mutual fund assets under management (AUM) rose by about 2.5% in January to $871.1 billion. That’s up by about 10% over the past year.

The mutual fund data is based on numbers provided to IFIC, along with some figures from Investor Economics Inc.