January was yet another month of net redemptions for mutual funds according to final numbers from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

Net sales, excluding re-invested distributions of $260 million, totaled minus $469 million. Net sales for all funds including re-invested distributions were $209 million. “Net redemptions for the month of January were $469 million, of which only $115 million were from long-term funds,” said Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO. “February, being the height of RRSP season, should post positive sales.”

The negative net sales in the long-term funds came primarily due to weakness in pure stock funds. The Canadian equity funds suffered $269.3 million in net redemptions, and the foreign equity funds took a $242.4 million hit. Only U.S. equity managed a modest gain, with just over $5.1 million in net sales for the month.

Rather than buying stock funds, investors showed a decided preference for safety. The bond and income category led the way with $200.4 million in net sales, while dividend funds garnered $186.8 million in net sales.

Total assets under management decreased in January to $381.6 billion, down 2.5% from $391.4 billion in December. Assets are down 10.6% from last January’s figure of $427.0 billion.

Looking at individual firms, greater-than-average asset drops were suffered by big independents such as Franklin Templeton, AGF, AIC and Mackenzie. Altamira also saw a notable drop.

Better performers in the month included PH&N, Guardian, Mawer, Brandes and Cartier. Bank firms such as TD and RBC also turned in decent months. Both CIBC and Dynamic posted big asset gains, but these results were clouded by the fact that both firms were rolling in recent acquisitions to their reported totals.

IFIC also reported the total number of member unitholder accounts at 52.3 million, a 0.3% increase over one year ago.