Mutual fund net sales ticked down a bit in August, although they were well ahead of the same month last year, according to the latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).

IFIC reports that net sales for August totalled $4.13 billion, which is down from $4.56 billion in July, but up significantly from August 2013 when sales were only $939.6 million.

Long-term funds recorded net sales of $4.1 billion in August, while money market funds contributed a modest $35.8 million in net sales.

Balanced funds continued to dominate the sales charts in August, with $3.44 billion worth of monthly net sales, which is still down from $4.3 billion in July. Bond funds were a distant second, with net sales in August of $214.7 million, which was also well down from $1.13 billion in July.

Equity funds, on the other hand, managed to improve their net redemption position, recording just $84.7 million in net redemptions in August, compared to $713.5 million worth in July. And, so-called “specialty funds” saw a notable jump in net sales to $517 million from $88.5 million in July.

Total mutual fund assets under management (AUM) finished August at $1.13 trillion, up about 2% from July. Total AUM rose by $131 billion, or 13.1%, so far this year.

The data in the report is compiled from IFIC and other sources, and aggregate totals are provided by Investor Economics.