Mutual funds recorded almost $2.6 billion in net sales during April, according to the latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

The monthly sales total is up substantially from $1.6 billion in long-term sales during the month last year. Overall sales were less than $500 million last year due to heavy redemptions from money market funds during the month. This year, just $31 million was redeemed from money market funds.

IFIC said that balanced funds enjoyed $2.1 billion in net sales during the month this year, almost evenly split between domestic and international offerings. International equity funds contributed another $1 billion of net sales, but $620 million was redeemed from Canadian equity funds in the month.

TD Asset Management led in overall net sales with $435 million worth, edging out RBC Asset Management, which had $423 million in April net sales. However, RBC held a hefty advantage in long-term funds with more than $478 million in long-term sales to TD’s $309 million.

AGF and Desjardins joined RBC and TD with more than $200 million in overall net sales. BMO Financial and AIM Trimark were both just shy of the $200 million mark. Dynamic Mutual Funds, Scotia Securities and Brandes Investment Partners all had more than $100 million in monthly net sales, too.

AIC, Acuity, Fidelity and National Bank were in overall net redemptions for the month.

Year-to-date net sales has now reached $19.6 billion, the highest level for this period since 1998. Also, total mutual fund assets grew by 1.4% during April to end the month at just under $700 billion, IFIC said. On a year-to date basis assets are up 5.9%, and on a year-over-year basis assets are up 14.9%.

“Continued strength in world markets coupled with strong April fund sales have resulted in year-over-year asset growth of 14.9%” said Pat Dunwoody, IFIC’s vice president, member services and communications. “Historically, there tends to be an industry wide slowdown in sales between March and April when investors take a breather after the RRSP season however this April we’ve seen sales that are $2 billion higher than the same period in either of the last two years.”