It looks as if the mutual fund industry had another tough month in May, says the Investment Funds Institute of Canada. IFIC is reporting that, based on a sample of preliminary data from some of its members, net new sales for the month of May are estimated to be between negative $100 million to positive $300 million.

“Net new sales for May are expected to be approximately $350 million higher than last month,” states Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO. “Sales for the month of May have made a good recovery from the previous month indicating continued investor confidence in mutual funds despite relatively flat markets.”

Among the big players, AGF had a tough month with $172 million in net redemptions. The banks also had a heavy redemption period, led by TD Bank’s $290 million in net redemptions. CIBC and Scotia each had more than $100 million in net redemptions for the month too. This indicates that money market funds probably had yet another tough session.

IFIC also estimates that net assets of the industry at the end of May will be in the range of $429 to $434 billion, down approximately 0.8% from last month1s total of $436.3 billion.