Mutual funds managed just under $200 million in net sales for December, leaving the industry just shy of $1.5 billion in overall net sales for the year.

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada reported Friday that total net sales were $194.1 million in December, down from $438.8 million in November but up from $748.6 million in net redemptions last December. For the full year, net sales reached $1.46 billion, up from just $151.2 million in 2008.

Looking solely at long-term fund sales, the picture is much brighter. Long-term sales were $2.47 billion in December and $17.42 billion for all of 2009. In the same month last year, long-term funds had $2.52 billion in net redemptions; and they recorded over $14 billion in net redemptions for all of 2008.

Balanced funds led the way in December, as sales totaled $1.7 billion in December, pushing their full year total to $11.18 billion. Bond funds were a close second in December, with $1.35 billion in net sales, but they trumped the balanced funds with full year sales of $12.61 billion.

On the equity side, fund redemptions were $639.2 million in December, up from $516.3 million in net redemptions in November. Equity fund redemptions totaled $5.99 billion for 2009, down from $12.18 billion in 2008.

Money market fund net redemptions were $2.27 billion in December, down from $ 2.51 billion in net redemptions in November. For 2009, money market funds had net redemptions of $15.96 billion, down from net sales of $14.29 billion in 2008.

IFIC also said that total assets under management were $595.2 billion at the end of 2009, up 1.4% from the previous month end, and up 17.4% from the beginning of the year. Long-term fund assets ended December at $540.8 billion, up 23.9% or $104.4 billion from the start of the year. This was the largest 12 month increase in long-term fund assets on record, IFIC noted.

Pat Dunwoody, IFIC’s vice president, member services and communications, said that 2009 will be remembered, “for the shift to more conservative investment choices with investor focus moving to bond funds and fixed income focused balanced funds rather than equity funds and equity focused balanced funds.”

IE