Fund sales positive in November

Mutual fund sales turned positive in November, with net inflows of between $156.9 million and $656.9 million, according to preliminary estimates from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).

“November was another good month for mutual fund investors. Collectively, they saw an estimated $12.5 billion month-over-month increase in their account balances due to market appreciation,” said Pat Dunwoody, vice-president of member services and communications with IFIC.

“While we are not quite to the end of the year, we can say with certainty that 2009 is shaping up to be the complete opposite of 2008 from the sales perspective,” she said. “Looking at sales year-to-date, investors have come back to long-term funds in a big way, investing $3 billion more than they took out at this point last year.”

Net sales of long term funds were about $3 billion, while money markets saw net redemptions in excess of $2.7 billion.

Total industry assets at the end of November were between $583.5 billion and $588.5 billion, up 2.27% from October’s total of $573.0 billion.

DundeeWealth announced net sales of $358 million, boosting non-bank AUM to $31.4 billion at month end, of which mutual funds made up $25.3 billion. November marked the company’s highest sales of the year.

Fidelity Investments reported total net sales of $328 million, with long-term funds pulling in a net $367 million on the month.

CI Financial reported net retail mutual fund sales of $116 million for the month of November, with $131 million in long-term funds inflows, and $15 million in money market redemptions. Assets under management at month-end were $61.5 billion in retail products, plus $4 billion in institutional money.

Investors Group reported $84.7 million in net sales, with $93.8 million in long terms fund inflows, with $9.1 million in money markets redemptions. Mutual fund assets under management stood at $56.5-billion at November 30, 2009 compared with $48.2-billion a year earlier.

Counsel Portfolio Services, a division of Investment Planning Counsel, reported $71.4 million in net mutual fund redemptions, with $85.7 million in long0term fund redemptions. Assets under management totaled $2.08 billion at month-end.

AGF Management reported total net redemptions of $95 million, with $82.4 million pulled out of long-term funds, and $12.6 million out of money markets. Total mutual fund assets under management at the end of the months were $22.7 billion.

Mackenzie Financial reported net redemptions of $122 million, including $72.5 million in redemptions from long term funds. Total assets under management were $62.6 billion at the end of the month, up 14.8% from November 2008.

(12/02/09)