Fund sales soar in February

As is often the case, the mutual fund industry enjoyed solid sales in February, with net inflows to long-term totalling $7.9 billion, according to data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC). That’s up from $3.6 billion in January.

It also marks a steady increase from $5.87 billion in February of 2011 and $3.39 billion in February 2010.

“Net sales for the mutual fund industry totalled $7.08 billion. Net sales of long-term funds were $7.90 billion and net redemptions of money market funds were $827.4 million,” said Jon Cockerline, IFIC’s director, policy and research.

Industry assets under management totaled $810.4 billion at the end of the February, marking a year-to-date increase of $40.8 billion (5.3%).

Balanced funds continued to dominate sales, with a net inflow of $5.52 billion, up from $1.91 billion in January. Year-to-date net sales were $7.43 billion, considerably softer than the $9.64 billion in net sales for the same period last year.

Bond funds were second most popular, with net sales of $2.87 billion, compared to $2.38 billion in January. Year-to-date net sales for bond funds totalled $5.25 billion, a staggering 21 times more than the $243.0 million taken in during the same period last year.

Equity funds posted net redemptions of $990.4 million in February, slightly better than January’s net redemptions of $1.06 billion. Year-to-date net redemptions totalled $2.05 billion, up from $1.39 billion for the same period last year.

Investors pulled a net $827.4 million out of money market funds, pushing year-to-date net redemptions to $1.74 billion.

Funds-of-funds remain the favoured structure, with net sales of $3.98 billion, versus $3.01 billion for standalone funds. But this marks a considerable contraction in the gap between the two—in January funds-of-fund net sales totaled $1.96 billion versus just $677 million for standalone funds.

Year-to-date, funds-of-funds have pulled in $5.94 billion in net sales, compared to $3.77 billion for standalone funds.

Staff

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