Mutual fund net sales came in at $744 million for August, but long-term net sales comprised just $330 million of that.

Balanced funds were the biggest sellers in August, with net sales of $539 million excluding reinvested distributions. That was down 6.6% from the prior month. Bond funds were a distant second at $197.6 million in net sales, followed by dividend funds, with $157.8 million in sales.

Pure equity categories were hit with net redemptions in August. Canadian equity funds saw $353.7 million in net redemptions. U.S. equity and foreign equity funds also saw redemptions.

Including re-invested distributions of $528 million, net sales for all funds stood at $1.3 billion. “An interesting feature of August sales is that money market funds were $413 million, surpassing even long-term funds,” said Joanne De Laurentiis, president & CEO of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, which reported the net sales data for August.

“Assets were up as well to $608.1 billion, an increase of $9 billion from the previous month,” she added.

The overall 1.5% increase in industry assets was trumped by several of the large firms. Most notably, RBC Asset Management, which saw assets increase 2.6%. Standard Life Mutual Funds, Acuity Funds and Mawer Investment Management all saw solid asset increases.

While almost all firms saw assets rise, several firms also experienced below average asset gains. Firms with increases of less than 1% include CIBC Asset Management, Franklin Templeton Investments and Guardian Group of Funds.