Fund sales maintain momentum in March: IFIC estimate

(April 4, 2005) IFIC reported late on Monday that, based on a sample of preliminary data from some of its members, net new sales for March should be somewhere between $3.3 billion and $3.7 billion.

“March sales appear to be continuing with the momentum we built up earlier in the RRSP season,” said Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO, noting that the March tally includes the last day of the RRSP season, March 1.

In February, mutual fund sales hit $5.3 billion, the best February the industry has seen since 2000, when net new sales reached $6.5 billion. However, the bulk of net new sales were in long-term funds, with money market funds in net redemption overall.

Among members providing IFIC with preliminary data for its March estimate, CI Mutual Funds led the way with some $598 million in total net sales, followed by RBC Asset Management with $577 million. Notable names on the negative side of the sales ledger for March included AIC Limited, which reported minus $310 million in total net sales.

IFIC also estimated that the net assets of the industry at the end of March will be in the range of $510 billion to $515 billion.

04/04/05

Staff

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