May 14, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 1, 1423

KARACHI, May 13: The 9th ICP Mutual Fund managed to gather one per cent premium in its market price over its Net Asset Value (NAV) per share, while the rest of the 25 ICP funds, including SEMF, continued to trade at varying discounts.

The latest weekly statement as on May 6, released by the corporation on Monday showed that the 9th Fund had covered all the earlier discount viz-a-viz the NAV, thanks to a 49 per cent jump in its market value since the beginning of the year (market value: on January 28= Rs22.80; on May 6=Rs 33.95). The NAV of 9th Fund during the same period rose by 30 per cent, from Rs25.87 to Rs33.60 per share.

The market price of the 9th Fund was seen to have outperformed the stock market index, which has posted 40 per cent rise since the start of the year. The reasons for investor interest in the 9th Fund could be due to its highest market capitalization of around Rs167 million; an NAV of Rs286 million and a dividend payout history, which produces five-year average yield of 17 per cent.

The ICP statement of Monday showed that the other ICP funds were trading at discounts to their per share NAVs, the widest discount of 55.85 per cent seen in 24th Fund, with its NAV at Rs5.55 and market price at Rs2.45. The narrowest discount of 26.49 per cent was noted to be in SEMF-A, which was quoted at the stock market at Rs23.75 against its NAV of Rs32.31 on May 6.