Islamic mutual fund works in a similar manner as a conventional fund except that the Islamic mutual fund only deploys funds in Shariah-compliant investments. The key players in Islamic mutual fund are: Asset Management Company, Trustee, Shariah Advisor & Registrar. Following are some of the top funds (based on NAV) according to Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan:
UBL Al Ameen Funds (Shariah Compliant Money Market — Annualized return)
Al-Ameen Islamic Cash Fund (AICF) [formerly UBL Islamic Cash Fund (UICF)] is a mutual fund investment scheme that offers an ideal investment facility, which allows to earn an attractive and stable riba-free return on one’s money while providing the flexibility of instant access to the money at all times.
NAFA Islamic Principal Protected/Preservation Fund (Shariah Compliant Fund of funds – Absolute return)
The objective of NAFA Islamic Principal Protected Fund-II is to earn a potentially high return through dynamic asset allocation between Shariah Compliant Equities and Money Market investment avenues, while providing principal protection. Key holdings of the fund belong to Oil & Gas Exploration Companies, Fertilizer and Cement.
The objective of NAFA Islamic Principal Preservation Fund is to earn a potentially high return through dynamic asset allocation between Shariah Compliant Equity related, and Shariah Compliant Income/Money Market Collective Investment Schemes, while providing principal preservation. Since inception, NIPPF has generated a return of 7.9% p.a. versus benchmark return of 6.9% p.a.
Atlas Islamic Income Fund (Shariah Compliant Income — Annualized return)
Atlas Islamic Income Fund (AIIF) was established by a Trust Deed dated May 7, 2008, between Atlas Asset Management Limited (AAML), as management company and Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDC), as trustee.
The fund’s primary objective is to provide unit holders with a good and stable rate of current income consistent with long-term preservation of capital in a Shariah compliant manner. A secondary objective is to take advantage of opportunities to realize capital appreciation. The fund shall seek to provide the investors with a rate of return consistent with a broadly diversified portfolio of long, medium and short term, high quality Islamic income instruments. AIIF invests only in Shariah-compliant income instruments to provide regular Halal income to investors and aims to provide a superior risk-adjusted return to the investors. Some of the benefits are:
- Riba-free returns
- Online access to individual accounts
- Shariah-compliant avenue of investment for individuals, corporate clients and retirement schemes
- Professional fund management expertise
- Required minimum investment as low as Rs. 5,000
- Easy withdrawal of money
- No minimum holding period
- Risk diversification
Dawood Islamic Fund (Shariah Compliant Asset Allocation – Absolute return)
Dawood Islamic Fund aims to pool in investors’ money in all the Shariah-compliant tools such as Islamic Banking, Ijarah, Sukuk, and Shariah-compliant equity stocks, etc., which ultimately aims to provide substantial Halal returns to the investors in a short span of time. The key objective is to provide Halal profit to investors by investing maximum 25 percent of net assets in equities, with the high percentage of non-equity income providing stability.
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Alfalah GHP Balanced Allocation Fund
Alfalah GHP Islamic Prosperity Planning Fund (AGIPPF) is an Open-ended Fund of Funds Scheme that aims to generate Shariah-compliant returns on investment as per the respective Allocation Plan by investing in Shariah Compliant Collective Investment Schemes in line with the risk tolerance of the investor. The fund comprises of two plans Islamic Balanced Allocation plan and active allocation plan providing investors with the freedom to ‘dial-up/dial down’ their investments – that is switch between plans with changing risk/reward requirements.
The ‘Alfalah GHP Islamic Balanced Allocation Plan’ is an allocation plan primarily aims to provide stable returns. This allocation plan is suitable for investors that have a relatively low risk tolerance and / or wish to save for the short to medium term.
ABL Islamic Financial Planning Fund
ABL Islamic Financial Planning Fund (ABL-IFPF) is based on an Open-ended, Islamic Fund structure which primarily invests in ABL Islamic Stock Fund & ABL Islamic Income Fund. ABL‐IFPF aims to generate returns on Investment as per the respective allocation plan by investing in Shariah Compliant Mutual Funds in line with the risk tolerance of the Investor.
JS Islamic Fund (Shariah Compliant equity — Absolute return)
JS ISF aims to grow investor’s capital in the long term in adherence with principles of Shariah compliance as advised by the Shariah Advisory Board (SAB) of this fund while ensuring liquidity. The fund investments are limited to asset classes approved by the Shariah Advisory Board and all companies under investment consideration are regularly screened for Shariah compliance.
[box type=”note” align=”” class=”” width=””]The writer is a Karachi based freelance columnist and is a banker by profession. He could be reached on Twitter @ReluctantAhsan[/box]