Fund sales steady in August: IFIC

Despite mounting economic insecurity and volatile financial markets, investors continued to pump capital into Canadian mutual funds in August, according to preliminary data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

According to the report, net sales totalled between $477.4 million and $977.41 million for the month. IFIC estimates net assets of the industry will be between $693.1 billion and $698.1 billion at the end of the month, up about 1.5% from July’s total of $685.4 billion.

“Both assets and sales are expected to have improved in August though investors will likely still have been affected by the volatile though relatively flat session we saw in both the domestic and U.S. equity markets,” said Pat Dunwoody, vice-president of member services and communications, IFIC. “In addition, other, more immediate, concerns have traditionally affected investor buying behaviour in August such as the family vacation and preparing the kids for school.”

RBC Asset Management posted net sales of $560 million, with $462 million landing in money markets. Meanwhile RBC’s Phillips, Hager & North subsidiary continued to see net redemptions, this month totalling $128 million. Between RBC-AM and PH&N, total assets under management reached $110 billion at the end of August.

CI Financial reported net sales of $115 million in the month, on gross sales of $665 million. Long-term funds attracted a net investment of $66 million, while $49 million came into money market funds. Assets under management totaled $67.5 billion, with total fee-earning assets of $100.6 billion.

Mackenzie Financial revealed net redemptions of $74.2 million, on gross sales of $407.4 million. Investors pulled a net $129.8 million out of long-term funds, while money market funds saw inflows of $55.6 million. Assets under management totalled $59.8 billion, down from $63.7 billion a year ago.

DundeeWealth announced “net additions” of $337 million to its assets under management, on gross additions of $600 million. The parent company of Dynamic Mutual Funds reported total mutual fund assets of $25.2 billion.

AGF Management reported net long-term redemptions of $92.1 million on gross sales of $175.5 million. Total assets under management tallied $48.7 billion.

Mavrix Fund Management reported net redemptions of $450,000 on gross sales of $4.9 million. The firm specializes in resource-based investments, and was hit hard by crumbling commodity prices. Assets under management fell 5.1% to $471.6 million — down 25.9% year-to-date, and off 30.8% from August 31 of last year.

Filed by Steven Lamb, Advisor.ca, steven.lamb@advisor.rogers.com

(09/03/08)

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.