Assessment of Performance of Mutual Funds Listed in Dhaka Stock Exchange

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the Mutual Fund industry's performance in Bangladesh, considering the close-end mutual funds of 32 listed funds in the Dhaka Stock Exchange, Bangladesh. The study employed unbalanced panel data analysis throughout 2014 to 2019. By using an error-corrected panel data regression model with an attempt to investigate the performance of mutual funds considering several fundamental factors such as Return on Assets, Earning per unit, Fund Size, Fund Age, Dividend payout ratio, Net Asset Growth and Management Fees, etc. After correcting autoregressive disturbance, the RE GLS regression model is selected to describe this panel data analysis. It demonstrates a significant positive connection between earning per unit and return on assets. The study identifies a significant negative relationship with fund age and asset growth in response to the change of return on assets. It also concludes there is no significant predictive power among the fund size, dividend payout ratio, management fees with return on assets while defining mutual fund performance. The study fills the gap by investigating the significant relationship of these following variables with the fundamental performance indicator. Findings of the empirical analysis suggest that the investors should pay close attention to earnings, fund age and assets growth while selecting mutual funds for investment. It is noticed that the company generally tends to pay lower dividend when the performance and profitability starts decrease. Policy makers should also pay attention to defining the downward characteristics of asset growth and dividend payout compared to the basic profitability ratios.