Mutual funds likely had a positive net sales month in November, according to preliminary data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

IFIC said net sales of mutual funds for the month are estimated to be between $156.9 million and $656.9 million.

In October, the industry weathered monthly net redemptions of $291.4 million as investors bailed out of money market funds.

RBC continues to dominate the sales charts in November, with $501 million in overall net redemptions, comprised of $1.15 billion of money market redemptions and $653 million of long-term net sales.

The firm led the monthly long-term net sales, followed by TD Asset Management at $620 million.

A cluster of firms reported over $300 million in monthly net sales, led by Fidelity Investments Canada ULC’s $367 million. Fidelity was followed by CIBC Asset Management at $357 million, Dynamic Mutual Funds at $344 million, and BMO Financial Group with $319 million.

Fidelity edged out Dynamic for the overall sales lead, with $327 million in net sales to Dynamic’s $322 million. TD was third at $241 million.

IFIC’s vice president of member services and communications, Pat Dunwoody, said mutual funds enjoyed an estimated $12.5 billion asset increase due to market appreciation.

“In addition, while we are not quite to the end of the year, we can say with certainty that 2009 is shaping up to be the complete opposite of 2008 from the sales perspective. Looking at sales year-to-date, investors have come back to long-term funds in a big way, investing $3 billion more than they took out at this point last year,” she said.

IFIC estimates that net assets of the mutual fund industry for the month of November will be between $583.5 billion and $588.5 billion, up approximately 2.27% from last month’s total of $573 billion.

IE