Daman Investments PSC, a leading UAE-based fund manager today announced the performance results for the month of May 2008 for three of its funds--the Daman Second Emirates Fund, the Daman Islamic Fund and the Arabian Programmed Trading Fund (APTF).
The Daman Second Emirates Fund, a UAE-registered open-ended fund regulated by the United Arab Emirates Central Bank and focused on the UAE equities markets, closed the month of May at a Net Asset Value (NAV) of AED 125.23 per unit as of May 31st, 2008, posting a decline of
-2.14%, as against NBAD General Index drop of -1.24%.
With markets staying in a consolidation mode with emphasis on sideways movement throughout the month of May, the Fund reduced its level of activity in order to preserve value and cash. The near-term outlook reveals that, the Fund will maintain a dynamic management approach towards market movement and use cash levels to hedge against excessive market volatility.
On the dividend front, the fund had declared its 2008 first quarter dividend of AED 1 per unit for investors as of March 31 2008. With this, the fund has made total dividend payouts of AED 4 per unit since inception and the annualized dividend yield for 2008 now stands at 1.91%
It is worth noting that the Daman Second Emirates Fund finished its first full year of operation at the end of March 2008 with gross returns of 23.66%; along with making consistent quarterly dividend payouts since inception, the fund is now up a total of 29.23% in its lifetime.
The Daman Islamic Fund, a Shari’ah based, open ended UAE-registered mutual fund, closed the month of May at a Net Asset Value (NAV) of AED, 109.72, a decline of -1.84% over the previous month, as compared to NBAD Islamic Index drop of -2.99% for the corresponding period.
Completing its first full year of operation since its inception in June 2007, the Daman Islamic Fund has yielded gross returns of 12.47% over this period with corresponding performance of benchmark NBAD Islamic Index for the same comparable period was 14.40%.
The Fund maintained its cautious approach given the unique makeup of the Islamic investment universe and the market’s tendency to remain in a consolidation phase. For the near term, the Fund will assess 2008 second quarter earnings impact and build positions accordingly within the Fund.
During the first quarter of 2008, The Daman Islamic fund declared an AED 1 per unit dividend for investors as of March 31, 2008. With this, the Fund has made total dividend payouts of AED 2.75 per unit since inception
Daman's first risk managed fund, the Arabian Programmed Trading Fund (APTF) designed and tailored for the GCC markets showed a gain of 0.63% as against a -0.68% decline witnessed by the GIC GCC Index.
The Funds NAV stands at US$ 91.47 for the month of May compared to US$ 90.90 for the month of April, reflecting a year to date growth of 1.81% as against 1.76% posted by the GIC GCC Index.
