October’s return: 11 equity-based mutual funds outperform index

Benchmark index has risen 3.5% since beginning of ongoing fiscal year

KARACHI:

Monthly returns of 11 out of the 21 equity-based conventional mutual funds operating in Pakistan remained higher than the benchmark index in October.

According to data compiled by the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan (MUFAP), 11 funds in October outperformed the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)-100 Index, which is typically the benchmark for almost all conventional equity funds.

The KSE-100 Index stood at 30,376.53 points at the end of October, up 2.18% from a month ago when the benchmark index equalled 29,726.39 points.

The best-performing equity-based mutual fund during October was JS Large Cap Fund, which posted an absolute monthly return of 6.87%. It was followed by National Investment Unit Trust (5.75%) and NAFA Stock Fund (5.05%).



Other equity funds that posted returns higher than the benchmark index in October were United Stock Advantage Fund (4.95%), Pakistan Stock Market Fund (3.75%), Alfalah GHP Alpha Fund (3.36%), First Habib Stock Fund (3.35%), First Capital Mutual Fund (3.19%), IGI Stock Fund (3.05%), ABL Stock Fund (2.84%) and Crosby Dragon Fund (2.59%).

Conventional equity funds performing worse than the benchmark index in the fourth month of the current fiscal year were Atlas Stock Market Fund (2.13%), Askari Equity Fund (1.96%), AKD Opportunity Fund (1.81%), Pakistan Strategic Allocation Fund (1.72%), Lakson Equity Fund (1.48%), JS Growth Fund (1.46%), JS Value Fund (1.33%), PICIC Energy Fund (1.12%) and PICIC Stock Fund (0.2%).

The worst performing conventional equity fund in October was HBL Stock Fund that posted a negative return of 0.1% on a month-on-month basis. The benchmark index has risen 3.5% since the beginning of the current fiscal year. National Investment Unit Trust has posted the highest return (9.51%) in absolute terms among all conventional mutual funds over the same period.



Islamic equity funds

MUFAP data shows that each of the nine Islamic equity funds posted positive month-on-month returns in October. The typical benchmark for Shariah-compliant equity funds, KSE Meezan Index (KMI-30), increased by 0.66% last month.

JS Islamic Fund remained the best Shariah-compliant equity fund in October with an absolute return of 8.71%. Other Islamic funds that outperformed their respective benchmark index were Al Ameen Shariah Stock Fund (4.32%), PICIC Islamic Stock Fund (3.11%), ABL Islamic Stock Fund (2.23%), Al Meezan Mutual Fund (1.74%), Meezan Islamic Fund (1.53%) and PIML Islamic Equity Fund (1.14%).

Atlas Islamic Stock Fund (0.45%) and HBL Islamic Stock Fund (0.3%) underperformed the KMI-30 Index in October.

Commodities-based mutual funds performed poorly in October.

In fact, both gold funds operating in Pakistan have posted negative returns since the beginning of 2014-15. The absolute loss in the net asset value of UBL Gold Fund and Atlas Gold Fund since July 1 has been 6.62% and 6.04%, respectively.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2014.

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