In the last week ended on 23 November 2017, the best performing open-ended fund was Fourth ICB Unit Fund, which generated 1.8 per cent return in that period. The fund outperformed the DSE Broad Index by 1.15 per cent as DSEX increased by 0.64 per cent in the trailing week. ICB Unit Fund is managed by ICB Asset Management Company Ltd., the oldest asset management companies in Bangladesh.
The second best performing fund was Seventh ICB Unit Fund which generated 1.74 per cent return in the last week. It is also managed by ICB AMCL. The top five best-performing funds in the last week are all managed by ICB AMCL. Furthermore, eight out of the top ten performing open-ended funds in last week are all managed by ICB AMCL.
IDLC Balanced Fund started in July of 2017 with an initial fund size of Tk 500 million. The fund is managed by a newly-formed asset management company, IDLC Asset Management Ltd. However, despite posting a 13.5 per cent return in the last three-month, it saw the Net Asset Value (NAV) decline for the first time. Weekly NAV of IDLC Balanced Fund declined to 0.35 per cent. The situation was also similar for ICL Balanced Fund, which generated 13.7 per cent return in the last three-month. However, it was the worst performing fund of the week, with a decline of (0.99 per cent).
The weak performance of these two meticulously managed funds demonstrates that the open-ended fund managed by private organisations did not have a great week.
Similar performance was also observed in the closed-end mutual sector. ICB AMCL was the best performing asset manager of the country last week among the closed-ended mutual funds too.
However, the impressive performance of the funds managed by ICB AMCL eclipses the underperformance of the overall open-ended fund segment. Among the 32 open-ended funds currently available in the market, only 11 of them outperformed the broad index, and the rest posted a return below that of the DSE Broad Index. About 11 of the open-ended funds posted a negative return in last week. The second worst performing fund in that period was MTB Unit Fund, posting a negative return of (0.95 per cent). The fund is managed by Alliance Capital Asset Management Ltd.