Mutual Funds’ price movements underperform DSE broad index

Despite the 0.64 per cent increase in Dhaka Stock Exchange Broad Index, DSEX, the Mutual Funds sector posted a negative price performance of (-0.33 per cent). Mutual Funds sector in Dhaka Stock Exchange is currently comprised of 36 closed-end mutual funds. The fund mangers of those funds published their weekly Net Asset Value (NAV) for the third week of November ending on 23^rd. 

According to the NAV reported by the Fund Managers and comparing those NAV to the market price, closed-end mutual fund industry traded at a price to NAV ratio of 0.64x, which means the whole mutual funds sector has a potential theoretical upside of approximately 56 per cent. The sectoral price to NAV was also 0.64x in the week before, meaning that the price of closed-end mutual funds did not move much in last week. As of last week, of the total 36 closed-end funds in the industry, 35 funds were traded at a discount while only one fund Prime Finance First Mutual Fund (1STPRIMFMF) was traded at a premium of 16.1 per cent. 

Comparing the price of various mutual funds, funds managed VIPB had a price to NAV ratio of close to 0.88x. These funds were trading at a 11.6 per cent discount, the lowest in the sector. On the other hand, funds managed by Race Asset Management Company were traded at a discount of 46.9 per cent, the highest in the sector. Among the funds, First Bangladesh Fixed Income Fund (FBFIF) had the highest discount at 50.8 per cent, and ICB AMCL 2ND NRB Mutual Fund had the lowest discount at 13.7 per cent.

In terms of the performance of asset managers, ICB Asset Management Company was the best performer of last week, with a NAV return of 0.61 per cent, and Vanguard Asset Management Ltd. was the worst performer, 0.56 per cent decline in NAV.

Overall, the closed-end mutual fund sector very slightly underperforms the DSEX Index this year. The year-to-date (YTD) return of DSEX was 25.8 per cent while the return of mutual fund sector was 23.3 per cent.