Mutual fund net sales came in just shy of $3 billion for July, the largest total for the month of July since 1997, according to the latest sales data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

Of the total, $2.6 billion went into long-term mutual funds, up from the $660 million in net sales
for the same month last year. Balanced funds were the month’s best selling category, with almost $1.8 billion in net sales, including almost $1.3 billion in sales for global balanced funds. International equity funds were a distant second place with about $600 million in net sales.

RBC Asset Management Inc. led the sales charts, as usual, with $480 million in monthly net sales, and $437 million long-term sales.

IGM Financial was a strong second place with $371 million in total net sales, split almost evenly between its Mackenzie and Investors Group funds.

Dynamic Mutual Funds took third place on the strength of $273 million in net sales, and it ranked second on a long-term basis with $270 million in net sales (surpassing IGM’s $232 million in long-term sales).

Scotia Securities and PH&N were the only other firms with more than $200 million in overall monthly net sales. Desjardins fell just short of the $200 million mark.

AIC had another $91 million in net redemptions during the month, and there were a handful of other firms with modest redemptions, including Altamira, MD Management, Mavrix, NBF Turnkey Solutions and Saxon, among others.

IFIC noted that net sales for the first seven months of the year climbed to over $28 billion, the highest absolute dollar result for the period since 1998. In the past 12 months, net sales into long-term funds alone have accounted for close to $32.8 billion, or 5.9% of beginning assets, it added.

Markets were not nearly as strong as sales in July however. Overall industry assets declined by 0.5% during the month to end July at $703.5 billion. Assets are still up on a year-to-date, and year-over-year basis, however, gaining 6.5% and 17.4%, over those periods, respectively thanks to a combination of robust net sales and positive markets.

“Canadians continued to focus on the long-term and on diversification in July. Long-term fund sales were $2.6 billion. This was the highest for the month of July since 1997. Furthermore, almost 73% of those long-term fund sales went to global equity and global fund-of-funds,” said Pat Dunwoody, IFIC’s vice president, Member Services & Communications.