The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) has assigned a 4-Star fund rating to National Investment (Unit) Trust (NIT), which reflects a good performance relative to its peers. The rating is a composite measure of two factors namely a) returns, and b) risk associated with the returns measured by Sharpe Ratio.

About the fund: NIT, an open-end scheme, was established in public sector in 1962 under a trust deed executed between National Investment Trust Limited (NITL) as management company and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) as trustee. NIT is not only the oldest mutual fund in the country but it is also the largest single investor in the stock market with net assets of PKR 79bln at end-05. The primary objective of NIT is to meet investor’s diverse income and liquidity needs and to offer best possible returns on their investments. NIT is a pure equity fund with listed equity securities constituting around 90% of its total assets. The Fund’s strategy is to build a portfolio of high dividend yielding securities with an increasing emphasis on active trading in equities.

About the Asset Manager: NITL, the management company, was incorporated as a public limited company on 23 October 1962. The principal activity of the company is to manage the National Investment (Unit) Trust. The company, with its primary focus of attracting retail investors has established a countrywide network of 19 branches. Additionally it has arrangements with different commercial banks and NIT units are available at more than 100 branches of those commercial banks. The BoD of NITL comprises ten members. The present Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Tariq Iqbal Khan, is a Chartered Accountant with extensive experience in the financial sector. The Head of Asset Management, an MBA, has an experience of more than 16 years with NIT.