Mutual fund net sales are expected to be between $550 million and $950 million for October, according to preliminary estimates from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

“Net sales are the highest for an October since October 2001,” said Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president & CEO.

Hockin noted that in October 2004, the industry had $52 million in net redemptions; in October 2003 net sales stood at $455 million and in October 2002 there were $1.1 billion in net redemptions.

Based on a sample of preliminary data from some of its members, IFIC estimates that net assets at the end of October will be in the range of $536 billion to $541 billion, down approximately 2.8% from last month’s total of $554.2 billion. “Understandably, assets were down last month because of the overall market downturn,” Hockin added.

The banks continue to dominate the net sales picture, led by RBC Asset Management with $461 million in monthly net sales. TD Asset Management was a close second with $416 million in net sales for the month. BMO Funds was the only other firm to generate more than $100 million in net sales, $257 million worth.

With the weakness in markets, many firms recorded net redemptions in October. AIM Trimark led the way with $191 million in redemptions, followed by CIBC at $179 million, and AIC with $167 million in redemptions. Scotia Securities was the only other firm with more than $100 million in redemptions.