The Investment Funds Institute of Canada is estimating that mutual fund sales figures for August will be somewhere between positive net sales of $150 million and net redemptions of $350 million.

IFIC reported the estimated range for the month’s sales on Thursday. Once again it’s expected that the industry will have produced positive long-term net sales, but that this will be offset by redemptions from money market funds.

Of the firms reporting, Scotia Asset Management led the monthly sales charts with $234 million, comprised of $105 million in long-term sales, and $129 million in money market sales. It was the only firm reporting positive money market sales.

RBC was the leader in long-term sales at $357 million worth, but this was more than offset by almost $500 million in money market redemptions.

Dynamic Mutual Funds was the only other firm with more than $100 million in overall monthly net sales. It was a close second to Scotia, generating $184 million in overall net sales. Sentry Investments was a distant third, at $89 million.

Dynamic was also second only to RBC in long-term net sales, with $194 million worth, followed by TD Asset Management at $176 million, CIBC Asset Management at $143 million and Scotia rounding out the top five.

Additionally, IFIC estimates that net assets for the mutual fund industry will finish the month at between $607.6 billion and $612.6 billion, up approximately 0.38% from last month’s total.

“With mixed or weaker than expected economic signals in most markets and a tendency among investors to be focused on their summer breaks at this time of year, we saw a drop in both long-term fund net sales and money market fund net redemptions in August,” said Pat Dunwoody, IFIC vice president of member services and communications.

“However, with long-term fund sales at $16 billion year-to-date, the trend for 2010 remains robust and is in-line with industry sales experience in the 2004-2006 pre-downturn periods,” she added.

IE