The net number for mutual fund number in November was minus $580 million, says he Investment Funds Institute of Canada. Net sales for all funds including re-invested distributions were minus $330 million.

“Money market redemptions accounted for all of the total net redemptions in November as net sales for long-term funds were a modest $185 million,” says Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO. $765 million flowed out of the money market category in November, mostly from domestic funds.

Looking at the long-term funds, asset classes were split down the middle between those with net sales and those in net redemptions. Bond & income funds led the way with $239.4 million in net sales, with another $126.4 million coming from the dividend funds. Balanced funds and real estate funds also saw positive net sales, highlighting the fact that investors are staying with more cautious asset classes.

The pure equity classes continue to be punished with redemptions. Foreign equities had the hardest time, with $198.1 million in monthly net redemptions. Canadian equity funds saw just $23 million in net redemptions. U.S. equity funds experienced $16.7 million in redemptions.

With the redemptions concentrated in short-term funds, the banks continued
to have a relatively rough time in November. Below average asset growth is
evident at the big bank firms, including RBC, TD and CIBC. Other laggards include Mackenzie.

The independents generally enjoyed a stronger relative performance in the month, led by gains at AIM, Franklin Templeton and PH&N. There was also some better-than-average asset growth at CI, AGF and Synergy.

“Assets grew by 3% from the previous month, an increase not seen since March of this year,” says Hockin. IFIC is also reporting the total number of member unitholder accounts at 52.6 million, a 1.4% increase over one year ago. Total assets under management increased in November to $397.5 billion, up 3.0% from $385.8 billion in October. Assets are down 4.2% from last November’s figure of $414.9 billion.