Mutual fund net sales totalled $4.9 billion in February, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada said today. Overall, fund sales during the traditional RRSP season increased a bit from 2005.

The February net sales total excludes reinvested distributions of $605 million. Net sales for all funds, including re-invested distributions, stood at $5.5 billion.

For the Jan-Feb period, traditionally considered the core RRSP season, net sales totalled $6.5 billion, up from just under $6 billion in the period last year. Long-term funds sales reached almost $8.1 billion this year, up from $6.2 billion last year.

Investors continue to show a bias to income and safety in their asset allocation decisions. Balanced funds continued to lead the way, with $1.9 billion in net sales during February. Both dividend funds and bond funds recorded about $1.2 billion in monthly net sales.

However, pure equity funds also managed positive net sales. Foreign equity funds garnered $771 million in net sales for the month, their highest total since February 2002. U.S. equity funds recorded $261 million in sales, followed by Canadian equity funds at $238 million. All the pure equity categories are also showing positive net sales for the Jan-Feb period, this represents an improvement from a year ago when these categories were all in net redemptions.

“Canadians are making a concerted effort at ensuring their financial requirements are met,” said Joanne De Laurentiis, IFIC’s President & CEO, in a release. “They’re taking advantage of the benefits of diversification through the purchase of foreign equity mutual funds, as well as looking down the road to retirement with the purchase of long-term funds.”

Total assets under management in February increased 0.3 % from January to $589 billion.

Among the big firms, the banks made the biggest asset gains, with BMO Investments up 1.9%, RBC Asset Management 1.3% higher, and TD Asset Management gaining 1.2%.

Also, Mackenzie gained 1.4% in assets, driving a 0.9% gain for IGM Financial. Smaller firms with strong asset gains include HSBC Investments (Canada), Acuity Funds, Standard Life, Saxon and Mawer.

Some of the larger firms lost assets in February however, including AIM Trimark Investments, AGF, Fidelity, CI and CIBC. Altamira saw its assets decline by 2.5% in the month.