KARACHI: Assets under Management (AUMs) for the Open End Mutual Fund (OEF) industry declined by 5.7 percent to Rs544 billion as at December 31, 2018 with conventional and Shariah compliant equity fund categories declining by 10.7 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively, owing to the rout in equity market.

Assets under Management (AUM) for conventional and Shariah compliant equity funds stood at Rs127 billion and Rs63 billion, respectively, as at the end of December 2018. Liquidity position (including investment in T-Bills) for both the categories combined declined from Rs17 billion (8.0 percent of AUM’s) to Rs15.2 billion (8.0 percent of AUM’s).

Looking at the stock wise exposure, conventional equity funds were most concentrated in Bank Alfalah (BAFL), United Bank (UBL) and Engro Corporation (ENGRO).

Within Shariah compliant equity funds, Oil & Gas Development Company (OGDC), Hub Power Company (HUBC) and Engro Corporation (ENGRO) were most common bets.

KSE-100 and KSE-30 indices came down by 8.5 percent and 11.1 percent during December 2018 while simple average return for conventional equity funds stood at negative 7.8 percent.

Similarly, Shariah compliant equity funds returned an average of negative 6.8 percent, compared to a return of negative 10.6 percent posted by KMI-30 during December 2018.

During the outgoing month, mutual funds sold shares worth $35 million with selling concentrated in banks, fertilizer and OMC sectors.