Net new mutual fund sales for January are estimated to be between $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion, according to figures released by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

IFIC also estimated that net fund assets at the end of January will be in the range of $499 to $502 billion, up approximately 0.9% from last month’s total of $497.3 billion.

“Once again, we had net sales of more than $1 billion for the month and with January seeing the fifth straight month of asset increases, we are over half a trillion dollars in assets. Those are good numbers,” said Tom Hockin, president and CEO of IFIC.

The January numbers continued December’s solid performance In December, mutual fund sales totalled $1.2 billion, the industry’s best month since last April.

Among industry leaders in January, Manulife Financial had net sales of $544 million, while RBC Asset Management recorded net sales of $494 million, the IFIC said.

However, some firms recorded sizeable net redemptions. AIC Ltd. had net redemptions of $304 million, while Fidelity Investments reported net redemptions of $229 million. Net redemptions at Mackenzie Financial were $90 million.