Mutual fund net sales likely swung into positive territory in January, entirely thanks to RBC Asset Management Inc.’s money market funds.

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada reported Tuesday that, based on a sample of preliminary data from some of its members, net sales of mutual funds for January are estimated to be between $660 million and $1.16 billion. However, almost $1.4 billion of the month’s net sales came from RBC’s money market funds, singlehandedly pushing the industry into positive net sales.

Elsewhere the picture was not as bright. Only five other firms reporting preliminary data had positive money market net sales. There were a few more firms than that reporting positive long-term net sales, led by Dynamic Mutual Funds and Franklin Templeton Investments, with monthly net sales of $105 million and $104 million, respectively. Overall RBC was far and away the strongest firm, with $1.25 billion in net sales, no other firm had as much as $100 million in net sales.

“We saw a significant deceleration in long-term fund net redemptions coupled with strong money market fund sales last month”, said Pat Dunwoody, vice president of member services and communications with IFIC. “We will know more when we report the final data at mid-month whether or not investors were moving back into certain long-term fund categories as we saw in December.”

IFIC also estimates that net assets of the mutual fund industry for the month of January will be between $488.1 billion and $493.1 billion, down approximately 3.22% from last month’s total of $507 billion.

IE