Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and UBL Fund Managers Limited (UBL Funds) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to launch Pakistan's first Co-Branded Bond Market Index 'KSE UBL Funds Government Bond Index' to its family of indices. According to a statement on Tuesday, the MoU was signed by Managing Director, KSE, Nadeem Naqvi and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), UBL Funds, Mir Muhammad Ali.
The UBL Funds will provide its Bond Index expertise by defining the methodology, structure and guidelines for the Bond Index. KSE will provide maintenance and dissemination support for the index. Bond Market Index will comprise all the Sovereign Bonds issued by Government of Pakistan. Therefore, the KSE and UBL Fund Managers Limited Bond Market Index will provide investors a suitable benchmark for performance on their Bonds investments. In addition, it will help create awareness amongst investors about the Government bonds as an investment avenue.
On the occasion, MD KSE highlighted the importance of the bond market index and stated that with the launch of that index it was hoped that both domestic and foreign institutional investors would look at Pakistan's sovereign paper in a new light and this would create much needed exposure for the country's fixed income market where globally, institutional investors have positions of over one trillion dollars in emerging debt market. The CEO, UBL Fund Managers Limited, said UBL funds had a rich history of launching innovative investment products. The co-branded bond market index is another effort by UBL funds to introduce new investment ideas in Pakistan's capital markets.