(December 15 – 16:10 ET) – The mutual fund industry is gathering sales momentum according to data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

Net sales totaled $1.8 billion in November, excluding re-invested distributions of $373 million. Net sales for all funds including re-invested distributions were $2.2 billion.

Foreign equities remained the most popular asset class, with $646 million in net new sales, although this was down slightly from October. In the year-to-date, foreign equities remain the most popular asset class, almost double last year’s net sales, with $16.6 billion through the first 11 months. U.S. equities are its closest rival at just $3.7 billion. Sales of U.S. equity funds ticked up almost 10% to $289 million.

Canadian equity sales jumped 15% to $360 million in the month. Balanced fund sales also recovered, up 32% to $257 million. Most of the income funds remained in net redemptions.

Among the fund companies, most of the big firms felt the adverse impact of market drops. Notable losers included AIM Fund Management, Mackenzie Financial and C.I. Fund Management, which all saw their assets fall more than average. Among the mid-sized firms, Altamira Management, AIC and Spectrum all suffered bigger assets slides, too.

The banks, Franklin Templeton and Phillips Hager & North held up relatively well. AGF Management’s assets jumped 19%, climbing into sixth spot overall in the asset rankings, with the addition of Global Strategy.

“Sales continued to gain strength,” saysTom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO. “Net sales increased in November by 23% over October and are a tremendous improvement over November 1999 when there were net redemptions of $50 million.”
-IE Staff