Income Funds Review: MCB Pakistan Sovereign Fund calling it a shot

August 6, 2019 (MLN): The first month of the ongoing Fiscal year has ended, and so have our hopes on the economic conditions of Pakistan. After a rather disappointing annual performance, it seems like the income mutual funds are carrying on the tradition of performing below to mark.

According to the graph compiled by Mettis Global, almost all the income funds reported returns that were significantly lower against the benchmark rate of 13.24%. For the purpose of income fund’s analysis, the benchmark rate has been derived from taking an average of 6M Pakistan revaluation rate (PKRV).

Nonetheless, MCB Pakistan Sovereign Fund successfully outperformed its peers and bypassed the yardstick, as its Net Asset Value (NAV) increased by 17.95%. Most of the fund’s portfolio comprised of Cash, PIBs and T-Bills.

This was followed by Alfalah GHP Sovereign Fund, which faced tough luck this time as it missed out on meeting the benchmark by a very slight margin. The fund’s NAV reported a surge 12.58% against the standard rate of 13.24%. Moreover, its portfolio consisted of investments in Cash, TFCs, PIBs and T-Bills.

On the flip side, Dawood Income Funds landed at the third bottommost rank with a net return of 8.51% in July. This comes as a shock especially since DIF delivered an applause worthy performance in the previous year, where it not only ranked first but was also the only income fund that crossed the standard rate. The investment portfolio of DIF comprised of placement with banks and DFI, and TFCs,

MCB DCF Income Fund and NIT-Government Bond Fund emerged as the only income funds that gave out dividends during the said period. MCB’s total payout stood at 0.9025 with a dividend yield of 8.86% and dividend gain of 8.2%, whereas NIT’s total payout amounted to 0.8845, with a dividend yield of 8.9% and dividend gain of 8.25%.

To sum it up, the performance of income mutual funds was mediocre to say the least, as most of the funds failed to catch up with the standard rate.  

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