Mutual fund net sales for March are estimated to be between $3.5 billion to $4.1 billion, according to preliminary data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

CI Investments led the net sales parade, with $772 million in sales during the month. CI just edged out RBC Asset Management, which had $719 million in sales. Although, on a purely long-term basis, RBC still led for the month with $818 million in sales.

TD Asset Management was a solid third place, with $592 million in monthly sales. TD was followed closely by the combined IGM Financial ($335 million for Mackenzie Financial, $224 million for Investors Group, and $23 million at Counsel Wealth Management).

There was a big drop from these firms to the next biggest sellers. Apart from the leaders, only BMO Funds and Dynamic Mutual Funds recorded more than $200 million in monthly net sales. Firms with more than $100 million in sales included Fidelity Investments, Manulife Investments, Acuity Funds, Sentry Select Capital, and Standard Life Mutual Funds.

Several firms also experienced net redemptions in the month, led by AIM Trimark’s $668 million in redemptions. AIC, Altamira and Scotia Securities had net redemptions also.

IFIC also estimates that net assets of the industry at the end of March will be in the range of $606 billion to $611 billion, up approximately 3.3% from last month’s total of $589 billion.