Over the past four months, the rally witnessed in Nigerian equities market has impacted the unit pricing and net asset values of equity-based funds under the regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) or Mutual Funds.
With the performance of equities market high at 28.25 percent year-to-date, looking at the performance of Mutual Funds, particularly those relating to equities market, for the past four months, INVESTOR trend watch of about 19 equity-based funds shows positive growth across the unit prices and Net Asset Values (NAV) of over 70 percent of them.
For instance, Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund with a unit price of N9, 512.92, as of January 4, 2013, rose to N10, 738.23 as of April 26, 2013. Likewise, its NAV closed high at N14.550 billion, at April 26, 2013, from N14.384 billion at January 4, 2013.
Also, in this four-month period, the unit price of ARM Discovery Fund rose to N304.93 from N286.22, though its NAV closed down at N5.392 billion, from N5.579 billion in January. To calculate a CIS NAV, its liabilities are subtracted from the value of the total assets of the fund, and the amount is then divided by the total number of shares in the fund to give the unit price.
Other equity-based funds include Coral Growth Fund whose unit price stood at N2, 353.69, at the end of April, from N2, 111.21 in January. The Fund’s NAV dipped to N3.690 billion, from N3.855 billion in January.
The unit price of Nigeria International Growth Fund rose to N1.78 in four months from N1.64 in January, though its NAV dropped from N2.680 billion to N2.045 billion in the same period. For Legacy Fund, its unit price grew to N1.30 from N1.16 at the beginning of this year, NAV rose from N798.752 million to N898.544 million at the end of April.
From a unit price of N1.60 and NAV of N391.465 million at the beginning of this year, IMB Energy Master Fund has risen to N1.87 or N456.276 million, respectively. For Frontier Fund, its unit price at 116.74 and NAV at N166.845 million is a remarkable trend against year-open level of N109.82 and N157.045 million.
The unit price and NAV of Denham Management Millennium Fund closed high at N3.93 and N23.204 million, respectively at April, from year-open level of N3.87 and N22.835 million; while unit price and NAV of Paramount Equity Fund rose from N12.65 and N221.135 million, respectively, to N 15.09 and N263.351 million. Furthermore, in the four-month period, UBA Equity Fund closed with a unit price of N1.16 from N1.03 in January, while NAV rose from N1.720 billion to N1.916 billion.
For ARM Aggressive Growth Fund, its price at N13.51 as of January this year rose to N15.23 at April, while NAV was rose from N3.088 billion to N3.905 billion; ACAP Canary Growth Fund rose from N0.67 to N0.68, while its NAV was N1.310 billion from N1.041 billion.
In the same period under review, Afrinvest Equity Fund price closed at N144.67, from N131.60, while its NAV was high at N497.908 million from N464.825 million. In addition to others, SIM Capital Alliance Fund unit price remained at N103.50, while its NAV rose from to N4.111 billion from N3.975 billion.
Zenith Equity Fund recorded a rise in its unit price from N12.62 to N14.06, with a NAV rise from N3.947 billion to N4.296 billion. BGL Nubian Fund rose to N1.06 at the end of April, from N0.95 at the beginning of the year. Its NAV rose to N295.373 million from N209.212 million at the beginning of the year.
Stories by IHEANYI NWACHUKWU
