The mutual fund industry managed to gather $1.13 billion in net new sales in December, capping 2011 off with full year sales of $21.2 billion, according to data released by the Investment Fund Institute of Canada (IFIC).
That’s slightly short of the $1.3 billion sold in December 2012, but well ahead of 2010’s full-year sales of $12.0 billion. Sales in 2009 were a virtual rounding error.
The industry finished the year with $769.7 billion in assets under management, a decline of $2.96 billion or 0.4%, according to Jon Cockerline, IFIC’s director, policy and research.
Long term fund sales totaled $1.2 billion in December, with full year sales totalling $27.2 billion, with balanced funds pulling in $27.7 billion, down from $28.6 billion for 2010. December sales alone were $1.04 billion.
Bond funds also finished the year in positive sales territory, with $8.87 billion in new cash, compared to net sales of $11.1 billion for 2010. December sales totaled $1.54 billion.
Straight equity funds’ were hit by $10.8 billion in net redemptions, roughly the same as last year’s total of $10.7 billion. Investors pulled $1.53 billion out of equity funds in December.
There was no love for money market funds, which saw $5.91 billion in net redemptions over the year.
IFIC wasn’t alone in releasing sales stats today. The Canadian ETF Association released its year-end sales data as well, reporting $7.6 billion in net sales for 2011. Between mutual funds and ETFs, one in every four net investment dollars in 2011 flowed into ETFs.