Mutual fund sales during this year’s RRSP season surpassed last year’s on the strength of robust sales for February, according to the latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).
The industry trade group said Tuesday that net sales for February came in at just under $9.3 billion, up from $5.6 billion in January, and surpassing last February’s total of $7.6 billion.
For the first two months of the year, total net sales of $14.9 billion is well ahead of last year’s $13.0 billion for the same period.
Long-term net sales came in at $9.65 billion for February, up from $6.25 billion in January. The industry also saw $388 million in redemptions from money market funds during the month, down from $608.6 million in January.
By asset class, balanced funds led the way in February with $7.4 billion in monthly net sales, and equity funds recorded another $2 billion worth. Bond funds had $228.4 million in monthly net redemptions.
For the year-to-date, balanced fund net sales totalled $12.1 billion, compared to $11.2 billion for the same period last year; equity funds had $3.6 billion in net sales, up from just $830.9 million in the 2013 period; and, bond funds’ net redemptions of $795.4 million, is down from net sales of $1.55 billion for the same period last year.
Total mutual fund assets under management (AUM) for February finished at $1.05 trillion, up by $34.0 billion, or 3.4% from January.
The data for the report is compiled from IFIC and other sources, and aggregate totals are provided by Investor Economics.