Mutual fund net sales were essentially flat during RRSP season compared with last year, according to the latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.
IFIC said Thursday that industry net sales for February came in at $7.1 billion, pushing the year-to-date net sales total to $9.7 billion. In 2011, net sales for the first two months of the year — the traditional RRSP season — were $9.5 billion.
While overall RRSP season net sales were up slightly from last year, long-term fund net sales for the period were down a bit, slipping to $11.45 billion this year from $11.55 billion in the same period last year. For the month of February, long-term net sales were up year over year, to $7.9 billion from $7.5 billion in the month last year.
Money market funds are still in net redemptions, with $827.4 million worth in February. Year-to-date net redemptions were $1.74 billion, which is down a bit from last year’s total of over $2 billion.
Balanced funds led the net sales in February, with $5.5 billion worth, compared to net sales of $1.9 billion in January. Year-to-date net sales for balanced funds totaled $7.4 billion, which is down from $9.6 billion for the same period last year.
Bond funds managed net sales of $2.87 billion last month, up a little from January. Net sales for the category in the first two months of the year totaled $5.25 billion, which is up sharply from just $243.0 million for the same period last year.
Equity funds remained in net redemptions in February, with $990.4 million in redemptions, which is more or less flat from $1.06 billion in January. Year-to-date net redemptions for equity funds totaled $2.05 billion, compared to net sales of $1.39 billion for the same period last year.
IFIC said that total mutual fund assets under management for February were $810.4 billion, up 2.4% from $791.2 billion in January.