Fund sales fall in July

Canadians proved to be a skittish bunch of investors in July, pulling up to $440 million out of mutual funds, according to early data compiled by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

That estimate is the worst case scenario — IFIC allows that net sales of mutual funds may have been slightly positive, but anticipates no more than $59 million in net sales.

“Mutual fund sales were a bit more subdued likely due to Canadians being a little less focused on their investments during the summer months,” said Pat Dunwoody, vice-president of member services and communications with IFIC.

On the upside for the industry, assets under management grew by an estimated $14.4 billion for the month. Net assets of the mutual fund industry for the month of July will be between $603.7 billion and $608.7 billion up 2.43% from June’s total of $591.8 billion.

“This is certainly good news for mutual fund investors as they have seen overall assets increase by close to $50 billion since last July,” Dunwoody said.

Several fund companies reported the details of their sales prior to the IFIC report.

CI Financial reported net long-term retail fund sales of $197 million, and $3 million in money market fund redemptions. Retail AUM totaled almost $61.3 billion, up 3.8% month-over-month.

DundeeWealth announced total mutual fund net sales of $158 million, including $157 million in long-term funds and another $1 million flowing into money market funds. Total mutual fund AUM ended the month at $29.3 billion.

Fidelity Investments revealed net inflows of $99 million, with long-term funds attracting $103 million in new money.

Investors Group reported net redemptions of $2.5 million from long-term funds, and another $300,000 from money markets. By the end of July, total AUM was $57.3 billion, up from $54.2-billion at same time last year.

Mackenzie Financial saw net long-term fund redemptions of $117.8 million, with another $20.9 million in money market redemptions. The firm’s long-term assets under management grew 7.3% year over year, to $38.7 billion. Overall AUM totaled $62.4 billion, up 6.1% from July 2009.

Counsel Portfolio Services, a division of Investment Planning Counsel, reported $16 million in net sales of long-term funds, with another $2.9 million in money market inflows. Total AUM at month-end was $2.26 billion, up from $1.90 billion a year earlier.

AGF Management reported net redemptions of $261.8 million, consisting of $251.3 million in long-term fund redemptions, and $10.5 million in money market redemptions. The long-term fund redemptions were boosted by $140.5 million of redemptions related to a rebalance transaction by an institutional investor, according to the company.

(08/05/10)