Financial Times

Namal Income Fund's first 2003 dividend

NAMAL Income Fund (NIF) has declared Rs. 0.54 per unit for the six month period ended June 30, the company said.

During this period the yield on one year treasury bill declined from 9.56% percent to 8.46% percent. The Average Weighted Deposit Rate (AWDR) also dropped from 7.47 percent to 6.0 percent indicating a reduction in overall deposit rates offered by the banks.

The general decline across the fixed income market made an impact on the average return generated by NIF from its investments in corporate and government debt instruments.

"However, the over weightage in corporate instruments with longer maturity duration of investments held by the Fund mitigated the effects of the sharp decline in yields from government debt," said NAMAL CEO S. Jeyavarman.

"The current single digit lower interest rates would have an impact on the Fund's return in the ensuing period. We hope our current efforts to find investment opportunities in corporate debts and securitised papers would counter the rapidly falling yields from government debt instruments in the next six month period," he added.