Long-term mutual funds recorded $7.7 billion in net sales for February, according to statistics reported by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada today.

Long-term funds sales last month were led by $3.2 billion in sales for foreign equity funds. Balanced fund sales were also robust, with $2.5 billion in sales of global balanced funds, and $2.2 billion in sales of domestic balanced funds.

The Canadian equity asset class continues to see net redemptions however, with $724 million leaving that category in February.

For the first two months of the year, net sales are just shy of $12 billion, up from just $6.3 billion for the same period last year. Although last year, more than $2 billion came out of money market funds — long-term fund sales were $8.4 billion in the period last year. Foreign equity funds have been the best selling asset class so far this year, with net sales of more than $5.2 billion.

RBC Asset Management Inc. and TD Asset Management Inc. continue to lead the way on net sales, with net sales of $1.54 billion and $1.16 billion, respectively, in February. They are far ahead of the rest of the pack.

IGM Financial ranks third with sales of $665.4 million, BMO investments is a close fourth at $660 million, and AGF Funds rounds out the top five with net sales of $540 million. AIM Trimark Investments, CIBC Asset Management, Desjardins, Franklin Templeton, Brandes Investment Partners, and Scotia Securities, all had more than $200 million in net sales. HSBC, Fidelity, IA Clarington and Sentry Select were all in the $100 million+ club for the month.

A handful of firms reported net redemptions for February, including AIC, Dynamic Mutual Funds, Altamira, Manulife Investments and AEGON. Although Dynamic enjoyed $68.5 million in positive long-term net sales.

IFIC also reported that long-term mutual fund assets grew by almost 16% on a year-over-year basis in February to end at $633 billion. In the first two months of the year, long-term assets are up $18.5 billion, with 36% of that coming from market appreciation.

Global balanced assets expanded by 32.6% on a year-over-year basis, posting the fastest growth amongst all the asset classes, IFIC said. Also, foreign equity assets are up 31%. “Improved valuations, helped by the reversal in the course of the Canadian dollar, and a significant increase in sales activity are now translating into a bigger share of mutual fund assets for global and international equity funds,” it explains.

IFIC also suggested that fund-of-funds continue to sell well, highlighting an ongoing industry trend — the shift towards investment solutions that combine the benefits of organized and monitored asset class diversification, client risk-profiling, and regular rebalancing activity.