UBLFM managing funds worth Rs10bn

The Board of Directors of UBL Fund Managers (UBLFM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Bank, announced on Tuesday that it was managing overall funds of Rs10 billion with over 5,000 unit-holders to date.

The board, after holding a meeting, announced the financial results for the six months ended December 31, 2006, of various funds under its portfolio.

Accordingly, United Growth & Income Fund (UGIF) in the fixed income category recorded a yield of over 12 per cent from July to December 2006. UGIF saw an increase in unit holders by 98 per cent, with a total fund size of over Rs3.3 billion. The net income per unit increased to Rs6.14 as compared to Rs4.29 for the same period last year.

Tips for Investing

Many people want to take advantage of the opportunity to invest as a way to supplement their income, but few people have the knowledge or the time to monitor stocks and they are reluctant to pay the high fees associated with full-service brokers.

As well, most people know that a diversified portfolio is the best-performing portfolio, but few people have the huge capital it takes to properly diversify a portfolio made up only of stocks.

One option for those people is to purchase mutual funds.

Investing for all stages of life

“Even if you’re on the right track, “you’ll get run over if you just sit there”, said cowboy humorist Will Rogers. As an investor, you want to make progress. To succeed, you need to know:

1. Where you are headed, and;

2. What’s the best way to get ahead?

Your answers will change accordingly. It is true that nothing is constant in finance. The stock market moves up and down, interest rates rise and fall, mutual fund portfolio managers come and go. Most predictably, you get older. The right portfolio of investments when you’re 25 won’t be the right portfolio when you’re 45 with kids in college, or 65 and ready to retire.

Small investors suffer losses due to lack of knowledge

There must be thousands of women with beautiful faces that have thought of going to Lahore and become an actress some end up as extras some in the notorious bazaar. The same is the case in Karachi, any person with a few thousand rupees to spare thinks of going to the stock market and become a big stock trader over night. Most end up broke.

There are more tales of ‘from riches to rags’ than of ‘from rags to riches’. Small investors coming to the bourse to stake their life earning in the equity bazaar must know that they might lose the whole amount in a wink of eye.

Investing: The Art Of Making Your Money Work For You

There is a lot to know about investing. It all depends on what type of investing you are interested in as well. There are many different types of investment options out there. So what is investing, specifically?

Mutual funds can invest abroad

In what is being seen as a landmark decision, the State Bank has allowed mutual funds operating in Pakistan to invest abroad. But initially the central bank has placed a cap of $15 million on such investment by a single mutual fund at a given time, says a circular issued by the Exchange Policy Department of the SBP on Saturday.

“This is a landmark decision,” says Mr. Jahangir Siddiqui who pioneered the open-ended mutual fund in Pakistan. “It is going to discourage capital flight from Pakistan and enable investors to diversify their portfolios geographically for the first time in the country.”