(October 16 – 15:00 ET) – The Investment Funds Institute of Canada has released mutual fund sales statistics for September.
Gross sales for all funds, including money market funds, totalled $9 billion in the month. Net sales were about $1.7 billion, although excluding re-invested distributions of $683 million, they amounted to $1 billion.
Long term fund sales are up 66% on a year-to-date basis. There was a notable turnaround in the Canadian equity and balanced fund categories from last year, while foreign sales tailed off slightly. Tom Hockin, IFIC resident and CEO, said, “The strong Canadian markets this year have resulted in significantly improved sales of Canadian equity funds, with net sales up 327% on a year-to-date basis.”
Foreign equity remains the most popular category with $436 million in net sales, but this is down from $672 million in the month last year. Canadian equity funds managed $229 million in net sales in September, up from $382 million in net redemptions last year. Balanced funds surged to second place with $363 million in net sales, up from $57 million a year ago. Sales of U.S. equity funds almost doubled to $230 million from $112 million in the period last year.
Total assets under management dipped in September to $432.4 billion, down 1.4% from $438.5 billion in August; but they remain up 21.5% from last September.
Assets slipped faster than average at a couple of the top firms. Mackenzie Financial saw assets decline 3.2% from August, Fidelity dropped 2.1%, and Royal is off 1.9%. Templeton’s assets slipped 2.6% in the month. A notable gainer was AIC, up 2.9%. Phillips Hager & North is up 3.1%, and Synergy is up 3.8%.
-IE Staff