Mutual funds suffered another $577 million in net redemptions in June, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada reported Tuesday.

All of the redemption pressure came from the short-term funds, as rates, and therefore returns, remained very low. More than $1 billion was redeemed from these funds in the month. Long-term funds managed about $432.5 million in positive net sales in the month.

The long-term sales continue to be focused in safer asset classes, with the bond funds enjoying $401 million in monthly net sales. Dividend funds managed $388.2 million in net sales.

Money continued to flow out of the traditional equity funds. In June, $245 million was redeemed from Canadian equity funds, and another $239.4 million flowed out of foreign equity funds. The U.S. equity funds attracted $58.2 million in positive net sales, however.

IFIC remains focused on the gains in industry assets that has followed a general market recovery. “Strength in the financial markets for the second quarter of this year has increased assets in long-term mutual funds by $25.4 billion, an increase of over 8.2% for the three months ending in June. This quarter marked the largest increased in long-term assets since December 2001,” said Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO.

Total assets under management increased in June to $390.8 billion, up 0.8% from $387.7 billion in May. Still, assets are down 6.2% from last June’s figure of $416.6 billion.

Among the bigger firms, the strongest asset gains came in names such as AIC, PH&N and Dynamic, which were up 1.4% to 1.5%. Smaller companies were the big winners though, with Brandes enjoying 8.9% in asset gains. Clarington, Guardian, Synergy, Standard Life and McLean Budden were strong, too.

Less than average gains were widespread at the bank-owned firms, where most money market assets reside. Also, a couple of big independents, AGF and Fidelity, were laggards.

IFIC also reported the total number of member unitholder accounts at 51.6 million, a 2.4% decrease over one year ago.