KARACHI, July 2: National Investment Trust has announced the highest ever dividend of Rs3.30 per unit for the fiscal year 2004-05, up from Rs2.55 per unit in 2003-04.

According to NIT Chairman and Managing Director Tariq Iqbal Khan, the dividend payments at Rs3.30 per unit would result in a total payout of Rs5.2 billion in 2004-05, up from Rs4.1 billion in 2003-04.

A press release quoted him as saying that the net income of the trust for 2004-05 rose by 30.4 per cent to Rs5.5 billion from Rs4.2 billion a year earlier. This translates into an earning per share of Rs3.47 for the outgoing fiscal year, up from Rs2.63 a year ago.

Mr Khan told a press conference the other day that the net asset value of NIT increased from Rs30.53 (ex-dividend) at end-June 2004 to Rs41.42 at end-June 2005. Thus total return on NIT units was 35.67 per cent per unit for the last fiscal year, including a dividend yield of 10.81 per cent (on the NAV at the beginning of the year).

The NIT chairman stated that in 2004-05, capital gains realized by the trust rose to an all-time high of Rs2.66 billion, up from Rs1.97 billion a year earlier. He attributed the increase to “enhanced and prudent stock market activities”. NIT traded record high shares of Rs17.6 billion in the outgoing fiscal year, he added.