Mutual fund net sales are expected to turn positive in July, according to preliminary data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada released Tuesday.

IFIC reported that, based on a sample of preliminary data from some of its members, net new sales for the month of July are estimated to be between $100 million to $500 million. “Net sales are expected to be about $300 million. This is the first time that net sales have been positive since last RRSP season. The majority of the sales are likely from long-term funds which have been posting modest net sales for the past few months,” revealed Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president & CEO.

IFIC also estimates that net assets of the industry at the end of July will be in the range of $400 to $405 billion, up approximately 3% from last month¹s total of $390.8 billion. “For the fourth straight month, assets in the industry have increased over the previous month. Assets are expected to increase 3% to about $403 billion, a gain of almost $12 billion from the previous month, and $33 billion over the four month period,” said Hockin.

The top firm in the month was CIBC, with $178 million in net sales. No other firm is reporting as much as $100 million in net sales. Other firms with positive sales include BMO, TD, National Bank and Guardian. Among the banks, only Scotia saw net redemptions.

Some of the independents also saw positive net sales, but there were still notable net redemptions at firms such as AGF, Fidelity, Investors Group, AIC and Franklin Templeton, all had redemptions.