Mutual fund net sales for February are estimated to be between $5.9 billion and $6.5 billion, according to preliminary data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

IFIC also said that, in contrast to the January sales, which were all in short-term funds, February’s net sales were split about evenly between short-term and long-term offerings.

“In sharp contrast to January, investors have decided once again to look longer term with roughly 50% of estimated February inflows going to long-term funds,” said Pat Dunwoody, vice president of member services and communications with IFIC.

RBC Asset Management dominated the sales picture once again in February, accounting for more than a third of the total, with total net sales of more than $2.2 billion. No other firm had as much as $1 billion in sales, with TD Asset Management coming closest at $845 million. CIBC Asset Management ranked third with $655 million in net sales, although all of that came in short-term funds.

RBC was also the leader in long-term sales, at $785 million. Fidelity Investments Canada was its closest challenger with $508 million in net sales, followed by TD at $363 million. Decent long-term sales were also evident for Investors Group, BMO Financial and Dynamic Mutual Funds.

AIM Trimark led the redemptions parade with $463 million in long-term net redemptions. AIC and PH&N also had over $100 million in long-term net redemptions.

IFIC also estimates that net assets of the mutual fund industry at the end of February will be in the range of $676.2 billion to $681.2 billion, up approximately 1.06% from last month’s total of $671.6 billion.