Mutual fund investors plowed more than $2.9 billion into funds in December, but almost $2.6 billion of that was into short-term funds, according to data released today by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

The money market fund sales represented an increase from $1.9 billion in sales for November, and $683 million at this point last year, IFIC said.

Money market funds also had strong total inflows for 2007 at just over $7 billion. This was the first time that money market funds ended the calendar year in net sales territory since 2001, the group noted.

Long-term fund sales were just $356 million during the month. Whereas in December 2006, long-term fund sales were $2.5 billion while money market sales were $683 million.

Both long-term and total fund sales for all of 2007 finished the year well above levels seen for 2006, IFIC reported. The $27.9 billion total for long-term fund sales in 2007 was $6.2 billion above the total for 2006 and the $34.9 billion total industry net sales in 2007 was $14.5 billion above the total for 2006, it added.

Balanced funds recorded almost $900 million in net sales for the month. Specialty funds were the only other bright spot with $129 million in monthly net sales. Equity funds recorded $483 million in overall net redemptions. Bond funds contributed $190 million in redemptions.

For the full year, $23 billion went into balanced funds, $4.8 billion was deposited in equity funds, and almost $1.5 billion went into specialty funds. Bond funds were the only major category in net redemptions, $1.4 billion worth.

IFIC said that sales strength in 2007 came not only from short-term fund sales but also from strong sales in fund-of-fund products. Fund-of-fund sales were $739 million in December roughly in line with November ($788 million) but down from this time last year ($1.5 billion). For all of 2007, fund-of-fund sales were $20.5 billion up $6.7 billion from 2006’s total.

“2007 was a healthy year for the mutual fund industry with total sales of $34.9 billion – the highest annual increase since 1997,” said Pat Dunwoody, IFIC’s vice president, member services & communications, in a release.

“With $23 billion in sales for 2007, Canadians overwhelmingly favoured balanced fund products, which include fund-of-funds and target-date portfolios. Money market funds, which had total sales in 2007 of $7 billion, also ended the year in positive sales territory,” Dunwoody said.

RBC Asset Management was the leading firm in December with almost $1.4 billion in net sales, although more than $1.2 billion of that came on the short-term side.

Scotia Securities was the bestselling long-term firm, with $295 million in monthly sales. It was followed by Fidelity Investments and Dynamic Mutual Funds as the only firms with more than $200 million in long-term net sales for December.

Industry assets were up about 5.5% for the year. Among the large firms, RBC far outpaced that total with 14.8% asset growth during the period. Other big gainers include Dynamic Mutual Funds, Scotia Securities, Desjardins, Manulife, and IA Clarington. Some of the smaller firms also saw huge asset gains, with Mawer up 28%, Sceptre gained 34%, Hartford investments was up 41%, Norrep gained 37%, and Caldwell added 40%.

Asset losers for 2007 include AIM Trimark, which was down more than 8%, AIC lost 24% of assets, NBF turnkey Solutions dropped 25%, and Dominion Equity Resource Fund was off more than 50%.