As forecast in preliminary numbers, April was a negative month for the mutual fund industry, as long-term net sales were wiped out by hefty money market fund redemptions.

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada reported that April net sales totalled negative $263 million, excluding re-invested distributions of $197.5 million. Net sales for all funds including re-invested distributions were still negative $65 million.

The culprit was money market funds, as investors redeemed almost $1.3 billion worth of these funds in the month, erasing just over $1 billion in long-term fund net sales. “Net sales of our long-term funds are up 44% from April 2001 and year-to-date long-term sales are up 31% from the prior year,” states Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO. “For the fourth straight month, sales in our long-term funds have outperformed corresponding sales in the same period of 2001.”

Within the long-term category, balanced funds were the top sellers for a change, at $350.7 million. This was followed by dividend funds, with $238.7 million in net sales, and U.S. equity funds, which had $224 million in monthly net sales.

Sales of both Canadian and foreign equity funds slumped badly from March, with net sales dropping about 85%. Overall, long-term fund net sales slipped 64% from March to April.

On a year-to-date basis, foreign equity funds are the only category down from last year, with net sales off 14%. U.S. equity net sales are up 43% in the period, and balanced fund sales are up 38%. Canadian equity net sales have gained just 3.9%.

Total assets under management slipped in April to $436.3 billion, down 2.0% from $445.3 billion in March. However, assets are up 4.9% from last March’s figure of $415.9 billion.

Firms with notable losses in April include AGF, AIC and Altamira. AIM held up relatively well, as did PH&N, National Bank and Clarington.

IFIC also reported the total number of member unitholder accounts at 53.5 million, a 1.8% increase over one year ago.