OVERVIEW
AIICO Balanced Fund is an open-ended mutual fund, investing in Fixed income instruments, Money market instruments and both Quoted and Unquoted equities.
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
The investment objective of the Fund is to create medium to long term capital growth as well as yearly income streams from declared dividends for unit holders. The fund also provides investors with the opportunity diversify their investments into products that would hitherto have been more difficult to invest in.
FUND PERFORMANCE
The AIICO balanced fund sustained positive performance for the month under review, improving 1.42% month-on-month while YTD performance stood at 5.15%
The Nigerian Equities Market saw positive performance in the month, as investors continued to take position on market bellwethers. Consequently, the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index (NGX ASI) gained 1.65% month-on-month while year-to-date gain extended to ca 10.95%.
The fixed income secondary market saw significant demand in February, as market players sought to invest liquidity from NTB and OMO maturities as well as bonds coupon payments. At the NTB Primary Market Auction (PMA), the 91-day and 364-day papers reduced by 24bps and 105bps to close at 2.24% and 4.35% respectively, while the 182-day paper was left unchanged at 3.30%. Unmet primary market demand filtered into the secondary market causing further decrease in yields in the secondary market.
Likewise, the FGN bonds secondary market was largely characterized by bullish sentiments as investors cherry-picked attractive yields in a bid to re-invest excess liquidity.
