Karachi: Pakistan’s mutual funds industry crossed Rs300 billion mark or US$ 3.40 billion once again, with an upward movement of 4.5 percent month-on-month in November 2011 to close at Rs302 billion.
The industry peaked out in terms of size when it touched as high a level as Rs 395 billion back in April 2008 while subsequently bottomed out to Rs174 billion in January 2009 due to massive redemptions amid economic crises in the country, analysts said.
The growth in industry’s asset size has been phenomenal since then, at 74 percent, which was mainly driven by fixed income and money market funds having 93 percent cumulative contribution.
Mutual funds grew during November 2011 despite continuous fall being witnessed in the local equities, as income fund side of the industry improved further. In Nov-11, income funds showed a handsome growth of 21 percent MoM to reach at Rs55 billion where asset size growth primarily came from solid appreciation of 151 percent MoM and 101 percent MoM in UBL’s income funds namely, UBL Government Securities Fund (UGSF) and United Saving Income Fund (USIF) respectively.
On the other hand, the size of the equity funds declined by 5.8 percent MoM where Islamic equity funds were down by 3.9 percent MoM in November 11 mainly on the back of fall witnessed in the local equity market.
Open-end funds also witnessed a growth of 5 percent MoM to reach at Rs 282 billion while closed-end funds were lackluster during the month though decreased by only 1.7 percent MoM to reach at Rs20.5 billion.
