Mutual funds recorded almost $2.6 billion in net sales for November, according to the latest statistics from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

IFIC reported that November net sales were $2.58 billion, up from $2.07 billion in the same month last year, and up from $1.7 billion in October.

Long-term fund net sales were also up strongly month over month, going from $1.4 billion in October to $2.3 billion in November. However, this is below November 2005’s total of $2.6 billion.

Foreign equity funds were the biggest sellers in November, generating almost $1.6 billion in net sales, followed by balanced funds, which had almost $1.2 billion in net sales. Bond and income funds also clocked in with $394 million in net sales.

However, redemptions were heavy in the Canadian equity and dividend and income funds. This likely reflects the impact of the federal government’s decision to start taxing income trusts as this is the first month of data since that announcement was made after the close on Oct. 31.

Canadian equity funds saw $643.7 million in net redemptions, and dividend funds had $253 million in redemptions. U.S. equity funds also recorded $121.2 million of net redemptions.

RBC Asset Management continued to lead the net sales charts, recording $758 million in net sales for November. TD Asset Management was a distant second place with $431 million in net sales. The other firms with at least $100 million in sales included IGM Financial, CIBC Asset Management, AGF Funds, BMO Investments, Scotia Securities, Franklin Templeton, Desjardins and IA Clarington.

The long-term net sales race was considerably tighter, although RBC still led the way with $523 million in net sales, followed by TD at $338 million. IGM, AGF and BMO had more than $200 million in long-term net sales each.

AIM Trimark was the only firm to report at least $100 million in net redemptions for the month, although other firms were also in net redemptions, including AIC, Manulife, Guardian and Altamira.

IFIC also reported that total mutual fund assets are up by 13.4% on a year-to-date basis and 16.2% year-over-year. Long-term mutual fund assets are up $77 billion so far this year, with $20 billion due to net sales and $57 billion in estimated market appreciation.