Mutual fund net sales slipped to $537 million in April, according to new data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

That was a drop of 5.3% from the $567 million in net sales the fund industry reported in April of 2005.


The net sales statistic excludes re-invested distributions of $475.6 million. Including re-invested distributions, net sales reached $1 billion. “Long-term fund sales in April were $1.5 billion, the highest for an April since 1998,” noted Joanne De Laurentiis, IFIC president & CEO.

Balanced funds were the biggest sellers in April, with net sales of $711 million excluding reinvested distributions.

In its statistics releases IFIC is adopting a new format using the Canadian Investment Funds Standards Committee Categories, meaning that it reports sales for a much more specific list of categories. Within that list of categories, Canadian income balanced funds led the sales with $446.8 million worth, followed by dividend funds at $427.1 million. Canadian bond funds also managed $217.6 million in net sales.

However, there are also signs that investors are venturing beyond these safer asset classes. Notably, global equity funds ranked third, with $269.8 million in net sales.

The Canadian balanced and global balanced categories were the only others with more than $100 million in monthly net sales.

Heavy redemptions came from Canadian money market funds, more than $917 million worth, and Canadian equities. Canadian equity funds recorded $335.3 million in net redemptions, plus $51 million in redemptions from Canadian equity (pure) funds, and $47.4 million in redemptions from Canadian Tactical Asset Allocation funds.

Total assets declined an estimated 0.1% in the month. Among the 10 largest firms, the only ones registering asset gains were RBC Asset Management (0.6%), AGF Management (0.4%), and BMO Investments (0.1%). Dynamic Mutual Funds also had a very strong month, with assets up 1.3%. Acuity Funds, Saxon Funds and Mawer Investment Management all recorded healthy asset gains too.

Bigger than average asset declines were registered by Investors Group, CIBC Asset Management, AIM Trimark, Fidelity Investments Canada, PH&N, Scotia Securities and AIC.