KARACHI, Oct 15: The Net Asset Value of NIT unit has shown an increase of 14.45 per cent from Rs38.12 as on June 30, 2005 (ex-dividend) to Rs43.63 as on September 30, 2005, against an increase of 10.41 per cent in KSE-100 index during the same period, a press release issued on Saturday by NIT following the meeting of the Board stated.

It observed that NIT had again outperformed the benchmark of KSE-100 index by a healthy margin of 4.04 per cent. The NIT board stated that the net income earned by the fund stood at Rs5.83 billion that depicted a growth of about 450 per cent over the corresponding period of last year. The earning per unit of the fund stood at Rs3.64 as compared to the earning per unit of Rs0.66 in the corresponding period of last year which showed a growth of 450 per cent. The earning per unit for the last full year of 2004-05 was Rs3.55.

Commenting on the 1Q06 results, NIT chairman Tariq Iqbal Khan said that the growth in net income of the fund was on the back of capital gains realized during the period that stood at all time high level of Rs5.22 billion as compared to Rs0.30 billion during the same period of last year. The reason for increase in the capital gains was the impact of Rs5.13 billion capital gains realized from the sale of NIT’s shareholding of National Refinery Limited through Privatization Commission.

The dividend income of the fund for the period under review amounted to Rs712 million as compared to Rs861 million in the corresponding period of last year, thus showing a decrease of 16.8 per cent.

Net assets under management of NIT increased from Rs61.0 billion as on June 30, 2005 to Rs69.9 billion as on September 30, 2005, reflecting a growth of 14.6 per cent despite redemption of Rs1.69 billion worth of NIT units, “as some investors opted to book gains at the high value of the units”. However, during the same period, sale of NIT units stood at Rs1.66 billion (including CIPs).