SECP highlights investment opportunities in ETFs

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) successfully organized a seminar to increase awareness regarding Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), a new investment product which has been launched recently in Pakistan's capital market.

ETFs are index tracking funds, a passive investment nature, which offered lower cost to the investors along with increased flexibility in entry and exit as ETF units can be bought and sold on the stock exchange, said a press release issued here.

The session, held in collaboration with Pakistan Stock Exchange and Asset Management Companies, is part of a string of webinars planned by the regulator over the coming months.

It aimed to address the awareness gap in the ETF arena, by engaging all stakeholders; inter-alia; brokerage houses, asset managers and institutional investors, amongst others.

The Commissioner SECP Farrukh Sabzwari, in his keynote address, highlighted that the diversified and low cost ETFs promised exciting space for investors. He revealed that a number of excellent theme-based ETFs are in the pipeline.

Sabzwari pointed out that ETFs are very popular internationally. Global market size of ETFs is close to US$ 7 trillion – which represents more than 20% of Global Equity AUMs.

He appreciated the four AMCs - namely NIT Limited, UBL Fund Managers Limited, Al Meezan Investment Management Limited and NBP Fund Management Limited, which have introduced their respective ETFs at PSX.

The CIOs of each of these four AMCs also spoke on the occasion and highlighted the distinctive characteristics and features of their respective ETFs.