Be positive: Negative perception limits investment in stocks

IGI launches portal to provide online access to investment information.

KARACHI: Negative perception about investing in domestic stocks is limiting prospect of economic growth, said IGI Investment Bank CEO Syed Javed Hassan.

Responding to questions from media representatives at the launching ceremony of the bank’s Fund Select Portal here on Thursday, Hassan urged media to play a positive role in projecting local investment opportunities. He explained that the portal will facilitate both corporate and retail investors with online access to information concerning their investment and the industry.

Hassan explained that the portal would also lower the workload on the company’s employees by allowing customers to directly access information that was previously obtained through phone calls and other forms of communications with the company.

“Multiple search parameters are available on the portal allowing the customers to search for information according to their requirements,” added the CEO.

The portal will track investment returns on a real-time basis and provide information regarding “composition of existing portfolio, return on portfolio, account statement, investment history and industry-specific information,” explained Head of Investment Advisory Asif Rashid Baloch.

“The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan was not cognisant of small investors over the past two years,” said IGI Funds CEO Maheen Rehman. While acknowledging that the regulator is stepping up efforts to improve investor protection, she said that “asset management companies also have to share the responsibility of investor protection.”

She highlighted that money market funds are primarily invested in government treasury bills making them relatively risk-free investments.

“In India, mutual fund deposits form almost 70 per cent of all bank deposits,” she stressed, alluding to the potential for growth in the industry here.

Company officials said that the country’s mutual fund industry is still in nascent stages of development and stressed that investors must be educated about investments to attract their interest towards the industry.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st,  2011.