Net sales of mutual funds surged to between $3.8 billion and $4.2 billion, compared with net redemptions of $107 million in March of last year, according to preliminary figures from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

Last month’s performance is expected to be much higher than March sales in the past two years, IFIC president and chief executive officer Tom Hockin said in a news release. He also said it is expected to be the sixth consecutive month of positive sales for the industry.

The big banks continue to lead the sales of funds last month with TD Asset Management Inc. taking the top spot with $612 million in net sales. It was followed by RBC Asset Management Inc. with $573 million, CIBC Asset Management with $398-million and BMO Funds with $335 million.

IFIC said it expects sales for the first quarter will be about $11 billion, outpacing sales in the same period in 2002 and 2003.

The March performance was below February’s net sales of $5 billion.

IFIC also estimated that net assets of the industry at the end of March will be between $462 billion and $467 billion, down 0.2%from last month’s $466 billion.