The Analysis of Net Asset Value (NAV) of Close-ended and Open-ended Mutual Funds in Pakistan

Abstract

The study reflects the performance of close-ended and open-ended mutual funds in Pakistan using net asset values (NAVs) to highlight the dissimilitude in the funds’ returns. The weekly data for NAVs of the funds are used from June 2015 to July 2020. The returns are calculated through the natural log (LN) function. The descriptive tests show that the data is not normally distributed as Kurtosis and Skewness values are significantly different from normal values. Also, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests verified that the data is not normally distributed (P-value < 0.05). Further, the non-parametric tests, namely the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test, are applied to probe the differences between independent variables. The non-parametric tests highlight the variation in NAV returns of the close-ended funds (CEF) (U = 579) and open-ended funds (OEF) (U = 1759). Hence it is examined that the performance of the funds is highly varied. However, there are chances of growth in the industry.