The Investment Funds Institute of Canada reported net sales, excluding re-invested distributions of $212.7 million, totaled $2.5 billion in January.

Net sales for all funds including re-invested distributions were $2.7 billion.

“Sales continue to gain strength in January. Net new sales are 14% higher than last month and up by the same percentage over the same month last year,” said Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO. “There was also a significant shift to long term funds this month. Long term fund sales made up 65% of the new money invested which we have not seen since RRSP season last year.”

For a change, sales were skewed towards long-term funds. Money market funds accounted for $878 million in net sales. Still respectable, but not the dominant performance of recent months.

The comeback in long-term sales is coming in a diversified set of asset classes. Foreign equities are leading the way with monthly net sales of $408 million, followed closely by $374 million into US equity funds.

On the domestic front, investors are still tilting toward safety. Bond & Income funds generated $258 million in net sales, followed by balanced funds which saw more than $251 million in net sales, and dividend and income funds which managed $238 million in net sales. The lagging category was the core Canadian equity asset class, which only has $82 million in monthly net sales.

Total assets under management increased in January to $427.0 billion, up 0.1% from $426.4 billion in December. Assets are up 0.3% from last January’s figure of $425.5 billion.

The top gainers in the month were the banks, led by RBC, TD and Scotia. Among the independents, AGF, Dynamic and Clarington had strong months. Notable losers include Mackenzie, Fidelity, CI, Franklin Templeton and AIC.

IFIC also reported the total number of member unitholder accounts at 52.1 million, a 3.6% increase over one year ago.