The Investment Funds Institute of Canada reported that October net sales reached $455 million, excluding re-invested distributions of $264 million.

Beneath the headline, sales looked even stronger as long-term funds recorded $815.4 million in monthly net sales. Money flowed out of short-term, money market funds to the tune of $360 million. “Net sales of long-term funds were $815 million for the month of [October], the highest since May 2002. This also marks the sixth straight month that net sales have been positive in the long-term category,” said Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO. “Overall, October’s net sales are the best since February 2003, the height of RRSP season.”

Investors continue to show caution in their asset allocation decisions however, splitting their fund purchases between bond funds and dividend funds. In the month, $439.5 million went into dividend funds, followed by $424.7 million into bond funds.

In other categories, balanced funds saw $191.95 million in net sales, foreign bond funds generated $86.4 million in net sales and U.S. equity funds managed $61.8 million in net sales.

The major pure equity funds continued to see outflows, however. Investors pulled $222.7 million out ofCanadian equity funds, and $132.9 million from foreign equity funds.

IFIC also reported that total assets under management increased in October to $420.3 billion, up 2.8% from $408.9 billion in September. Assets are up 8.9% from last October’s figure of $385.8 billion.

CI Mutual Funds recorded a big asset gain, jumping more than 8%, as it added Synergy’s assets to its books.

Strong gains were evident at Brandes, which saw its assets jump 17.9%. Other smaller players with impressive performances include Acuity, Standard Life, Dynamic, Northwest and Saxon. Notably, Sceptre also saw its assets increase 5% in the month, despite the scandal afflicting its U.S. investor, Putnam Investments, in the U.S.

Reflecting the weakness in short-term funds, some of the banks had lower-than-average asset gains.

Also, the total number of unitholder accounts slipped to 51.2 million, a 2.8% decrease over one year ago.