Net sales for Canadian mutual funds were positive for the eighth month running, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada. Excluding reinvested distributions of $318 million, new net sales were $533 million.

In April, net sales, excluding re-invested distributions of $284.3 million, totalled $1.4 billion.

“Net sales for the month of May were positive for the eighth straight month. Sales of long-term funds for the first five months of 2004 were $12.2 billion, representing over 95% of all sales for the industry,” said Tom Hockin, IFIC president and CEO, in a news release. “Assets in the industry rose for the seventh time in the last eight months.” He says assets rose nearly $35 billion in 2004 alone.

Total assets under management jumped 0.6% in May to $473.7 billion. This represents an increase of 22.2% from $387.7 billion in May 2003.

In money market fund, gross sales totalled $4.1 billion for the month. Net sales reached $278 million or $332 million including re-invested distributions. Total assets under management were $54.2billion.

Overall Canadian equity funds made the biggest strides, with a 3.4% rise in total assets under management while mortgage and dividend & Income funds dropped 19.2% and 2.2% of their assets under management.

According to the May figures, Investors Group reclaimed the top spot in fund assets, beating RBC Asset Management.

IFIC statistics for IGM Financial Inc. combine the $42.37 billion in Investors Group assets with $35.42 billion at Mackenzie Financial for the first time.

which was acquired by Investors Group in April 2001 but until now has been listed separately in statistics compiled by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

Adding in $947 million from Counsel Wealth Management, IGM reported total assets of $78.74 billion at the end of May.

Second-place RBC held $44.24 billion, followed by CIBC Asset Management at $40.82 billion, AIM Trimark with $40.56 billion and CI Mutual Funds at $40.35 billion.