Mutual funds recorded just over $1 billion in net redemptions in May, as gross sales sagged, according to final data released Tuesday by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

IFIC reports that overall net redemptions came in at $1.08 billion for May. That’s a big fall from $669.9 million of redemptions in April, and a sharp reversal from last May when net sales totalled $939.2 million in the month. Through the first five months of the year, net sales are down to $3.67 billion, compared with $4.68 billion in net sales over the same period last year.

Both the long-term and short-term fund categories were in net redemptions for the month, comprised of $206.4 million in long-term redemptions and $875.5 million in money market redemptions. Last month, long-term funds had net sales of $1.26 billion, whereas money market funds were in much higher net redemptions, $1.93 billion worth.

Balanced funds led the sales charts in May with net sales totaling $1.28 billion, although this was down from $2.32 billion in April. Fixed income funds also returned to positive sales territory in May with $237.8 million in net sales for the month. However, equity fund net redemptions were $1.65 billion in the month, up from net redemptions of $473.3 million in April.

“Long-term net sales were negative in May but this was due to a slowdown in gross sales rather than an increase in gross redemptions,” said Pat Dunwoody, vice president of member services and communications with IFIC. “Likely, we were seeing investors take a pause to watch the events in Europe play out and to gauge the impact of these events on the global recovery.”

Manulife Investments was the only firm with more than $200 million in overall monthly net sales for May. It was followed by Fonds Desjardins, Fidelity Investments Canada ULC and Dynamic Funds, with positive net sales.

RBC had almost $700 million in overall net redemptions for the month, but this was entirely due to its money market funds, its long-term funds recorded $158.5 million in net sales. Only Manulife and Desjardins had more long-term net sales.

IFIC also reported that mutual fund assets totaled $600.5 billion at the end of May, declining by $20 billion or 3.2% from April. “Mutual fund net assets remained above the $600 billion mark in May during a turbulent month for markets. Year-over-year asset growth was still a healthy 11.7% which meant that investors saw a $62.7 billion increase in their account balances collectively over the last 12 months,” added Dunwoody.

IE