Mutual fund net sales reached $2.3 billion in November, according to the latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

IFIC reported that net sales for the month, excluding re-invested distributions of $482.7 million, totalled $2.3 billion. Net sales for all funds, including re-invested distributions, stood at $2.8 billion.

Balanced funds were the biggest sellers in November, with net sales of $1.1 billion, excluding reinvested distributions. Bond funds ranked second with $836 million in net sales, followed by dividend funds with $736 million in net sales.

In the year to date, balanced funds are still leading the way, with more than $11.2 billion in net sales so far. Dividend funds hold second place, with about $9.6 billion in net sales, followed by bond funds at $7.5 billion.

“The confidence long-term investors have put into mutual funds has seen year-to-date mutual fund sales reach $21.7 billion, the highest for this 11-month period since November 2001,” said Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO.

Pure equity funds continued to suffer redemptions, with $306 million coming out of Canadian equity funds in the month. Modest net redemptions were also witnessed in the foreign equity and U.S. equity categories.

In the year to date period, about $2.3 billion has come out Canadian equity funds and almost $3.0 billion has been redeemed from foreign equity funds. Among the pure equity groups, US equity funds are holding up best, with just under $1 billion in net redemptions for the first 11 months of 2005.

“Canadian income trust funds made a modest comeback following the federal government’s decision to enhance the dividend tax credit in response to issues regarding income trusts. The industry leading categories – Canadian dividend funds, Canadian balanced funds and Canadian bond funds – continued to bring strong net new sales in November,” explained Hockin.

Total assets under management in November increased 3.2% from October to $556.2 billion. Firms enjoying better than average asset growth include CI Investments, BMO Investments, Manulife Investments, Dynamic Mutual Funds, Guardian, Standard Life and Acuity Funds.

Weaker growth was evident at AIM Trimark, Scotia Securities, MD Management, AIC, National Bank Mutual Funds and Brandes Investment Partners.