Analysis of Financial Performance of Islamic Mutual Funds & Islamic Pension Funds in Pakistan

Abstract

The Islamic finance industry is growing exponentially at global level catering to the demands of Muslim consumers. The same trend is being observed in Pakistan as many Islamic mutual funds and Islamic pension funds are working alongside traditional funds. This research seeks to explore the financial performance of various Islamic mutual funds and Islamic pension funds in Pakistan from 2015-2022. For this purpose, we selected 10 Islamic mutual funds and 5 Islamic pension funds on random basis and employed Sharpe Ratio, Treynor Ratio, and Jenson’s Alpha techniques to analyze the financial performance of these funds in terms of returns generated and their comparison with the industry results. The study's findings showed that Islamic mutual and pension funds in Pakistan are still struggling to provide market-oriented returns to their investors. This gap in generating excess returns may be due to the nature of the Islamic funds that restricts their investment options for diversification due to the Shariah guidance. This study recommends that industry stakeholders including fund management companies, investors, regulatory bodies, Shariah scholars etc. all need to work closely to address the short-comings of the existing operational restrictions of the Islamic funds and ensure a level-playing field along with the traditional fund management companies for generating maximum returns for their investors.