The Investment Funds Institute of Canada reported June net sales totalled just $297 million, not including $1 billion in re-invested distributions.

That’s down sharply from $1.8 billion a year ago as financial markets slackened.

Canadian income balanced funds led the way with $333 million in sales, followed by Canadian bond funds at $313 million and international equity funds at $271 million. However, there were also heavy redemptions, $330 million worth, from Canadian equity funds, and another $214.7 million from Canadian equity pure funds. US equity funds, foreign bonds and short-term bond funds also saw notable redemptions.

“Sales in balanced funds continued to remain strong with sales for the first six months of this year mirroring sales for the same time last year,” said Joanne De Laurentiis, IFIC’s president & CEO, in a news release. “In addition, equities continue to do well. Year-to-date foreign equity sales now stand at $2.5 billion, representing more than 22% of overall sales in the industry.”

De Laurentiis noted that all foreign equity categories have had positive sales in 2006, with global and international equities grabbing the lion’s share of sales.

Total assets under management decreased in June to $589 billion, down 0.5% from $591.7 billion in May. Assets are up 11.8% from last June’s figure of $526.9 billion.

Some firms enjoyed asset gains however. CI Investments, PH&N and Dynamic Mutual Funds all saw assets rise 0.2% in the month. Among the smaller firms, Acuity gained 0.5% and Mawer’s assets increased 0.6%.

On the downside, IGM Financial, AIM Trimark and Fidelity all saw bigger than average asset declines. AIC was one of the hardest hit, with assets dropping 2.5% in the month. Other weak firms include IA Clarington, Altamira, Standard Life and Ethical Funds, all saw their assets slide by more than 1%. Dominion Equity Resource Fund saw its assets drop 9.6%, according to IFIC, and there also notable declines for Mavrix, Norrep, Sceptre and Tradex.