Unit Trust Funds Research Articles

The factors influencing the selection of fund management companies by Malaysian retail investors in the context of islamic unit trust funds

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of fund management companies' past performance, fees, perceived religiosity, and perceived risk on Malaysian Muslim investors' attitude toward them. The moderating effects of investor risk aversion, price sensitivity, religiosity, and Islamic financial literacy are considered. A model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology is built to analyze the impact of the variables considered. The study data were collected using a survey of 550 Malaysian retail investors. Our findings show that Muslim investor attitudes are negatively affected by the perceived risk of a fund management company and positively affected by a fund management company's perceived religiosity and past performance. Moreover, the perceived religiosity impact is positively moderated by an investor's Islamic financial literacy and negatively moderated by the investor's price sensitivity. Practical implications of the results and avenues for further investigation in future research are discussed.

Philanthropic Impact of Investing Via Waqf-Featured Unit Trust Funds: Determinant Factors Influencing the Participation in Waqf Unit Trust Funds in Malaysia

Purpose — Waqf unit trust funds are a form of value-based impact investing that combines financial investment with philanthropic goals through waqf (Islamic endowment). This study uses the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to investigate the factors that influence people’s intentions to participate in waqf unit trust funds in Malaysia. Furthermore, the study investigates the function of religion as a moderator in predicting an individual’s intention to engage in waqf unit trust funds. Design/Methodology/Approach — Four hundred and four completed survey questionnaires have been obtained. Descriptive analysis and Partial Least Square–Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) are performed to analyse the data. Findings — The findings show that an individual’s intention to engage in waqf unit trust funds is influenced by attitude, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control, and moral norms. Furthermore, religiosity influences the relationship between moral norms and the intention to join in waqf unit trust funds. Research Implications and Limitations — Findings from this study which focuses on Muslims’ involvement in recently established waqf unit trust funds can be used by the waqf unit trust managers in Malaysia to develop appropriate marketing strategies in encouraging Muslim participation in waqf unit trust funds. Participation in waqf unit trusts is not limited to Muslims; hence, future studies can be conducted to cover a wider base of respondents among non-Muslims.

Exploring the Co-movement Between Return and Risk of Mutual Funds

The goal of this study is to review the significance of the mutual fund market’s return and volatility and which type of mutual fund has a vital impact which contributes to the understanding of the investor's indicates their investment decisions and identify the past related studies upon the performance of the mutual fund towards aligning to the latest short and long-term strategies for the responsible authority to reorient their policies to ensure the terms of exposure of current managerial actions is heading upon the evolution of innovation. The author has analysed and evaluated a broad range of literature on mutual funds, examining a range of factors and features that contribute to their short and long-term viability and diversification. As a result of their thorough review, the study has identified diverse types of mutual funds indicating that it plays a vital role in the survival and success of these investment vehicles. Furthermore, the current studies delving into a wide range of recognition of the Unit Trust Funds roles for the responsible institutions at domestic and international organisations directed towards establishing a better ailing with better-shaped strategies which are been explored. Yet, the past research has been a gap being explicated due to lack of innovation and this study would like to address the gap and is proposed along with the list of resources for future research with a similar aim. The originality of this study is to ensure that the validity of the research has been well assured by reference to highly indexed articles from various platforms such as Scopus, Web of Science etc. Thus, the purpose of the study is supported with solid justification.

What factors affecting investment decision? The moderating role of fintech self-efficacy.

This study aims to determine, from the perspective of investors, the factors that predict Islamic unit trust (IUT) investment intentions. Additionally, this paper examines the moderating effect of fintech self-efficacy (FSE) on the relationship between attitude and investment intention. A total of 392 data were collected from IUT investors in Malaysia and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that subjective norms have the highest impact on investment intention, followed by attitude and FSE, while religiosity is not significantly associated with investment intention in Islamic unit trust funds. Attitude significantly mediates religiosity-intention and Islamic financial literacy-intention relationships. FSE significantly moderates the attitude-intention relationship. The results shed light on the key factors that increase investing behavior and have direct managerial implications with regard to marketing strategies and target markets. These findings suggest that IUT service providers should take the lead in attracting customers through effective and targeted marketing initiatives, particularly by enhancing customers' FSE and capabilities. This study provides empirical evidence on the interrelationships between Islamic financial literacy, religiosity, and FSE in examining investors' behavior using the Theory of Planned Behavior framework. The study explores the moderating role of FSE on the relationship between attitude and investment intention.

THE INFLUENCE OF FINTECH SELF-EFFICACY AND ATTITUDE ON INVESTMENT DECISIONS OF MUSLIM INVESTORS IN MALAYSIA

This study aims to identify the predictors of Islamic unit trust funds (IUT) investment intention from the investors' perspective. Additionally, this paper examines the moderating effect of fintech self-efficacy (FSE) on the relationship between attitude and investment intention. A total of 392 data were collected from IUT investors in Malaysia and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that subjective norms have the highest impact on investment intention, followed by attitude and FSE, while religiosity is not significantly associated with investment intention in Islamic unit trust funds. Attitude significantly mediates religiosity-intention and Islamic financial literacy-intention relationships. Additionally, FSE significantly moderates the relationship between attitude and investment intention. The results shed light on the key factors that increase investing behavior and have direct managerial implications with regard to marketing strategies and target markets. These findings suggest that IUT service providers should take the lead in attracting customers through effective and targeted marketing initiatives, particularly by enhancing customers' FSE and capabilities. This study provides empirical evidence on the interrelationships between IFL, religiosity, and FSE in examining investors' behavior using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework. The role of perceived behavioral control was substituted with FSE. The study explores the moderating role of FSE on the relationship between attitude and investment intention.

Applications of Waqf-Featured Fund in the Malaysian Islamic Fund Management Industry: A Comparative Study

Historical evidence demonstrates the enormous role waqf institutions have played in the development and advancement of Muslims throughout the Muslim history. With the proper structure and strategy, waqf contributes to numerous spheres of life, including mainstream economic development. Contemporary development of Islamic finance has enabled the waqf concept to be linked to various financial products, including Shariah-compliant investment instruments, such as, Islamic unit trust funds and Islamic wholesale funds. This paper aims to highlight the current applications of the Waqf-Featured Fund (WFF) in the Malaysia Islamic Fund Management Industry. This is in relation to the launch of a new WFF framework to facilitate the offering of Islamic funds with waqf characteristics. The study took both qualitative via in-depth semi-structured interviews with eleven (11) WFF stakeholders, as well as, analyzing of policy documents, journal articles, books, and online resources. The findings shed light on the current issues and challenges confronting waqf projects in Malaysia, as well as the current guidelines and essential requirements for the WFF, the current application of the WFF in the Malaysian Islamic Fund Management (IFM) industry, and a proposal for the future application model, which includes fund collection, investment structure, distribution process, and fund reporting.

A Comparative Analysis of Equity and Balanced Unit Trust Funds before and During COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper aims to examine the comparative performance of equity and balanced unit trust funds before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is from January 2014 to December 2018 and January 2019 to December 2020. To achieve the aforementioned study objective, the study conducted by using three model measures, Sharpe, Treynor and Jensen’s alpha Index. The findings of this study carry out the COVID-19 pandemic does not affect the performance of equity and balanced unit trust funds. Investors gain a return from equity funds and balanced funds into a well-diversified domestic investment portfolio. To be concluded that unit trust funds help investors to put their money in different baskets of investment avenues to minimize the risk of loss of money, especially during a turbulent market. Future studies may investigate the features of fixed-income-based unit trusts, such as government and corporate bonds with commercial and social goals and as a mechanism for promoting environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations towards establishing a low-carbon economy.

Trusts in Business Research: A Concise Systematic Literature Review

This study is a concise, systematic literature review of a legal instrument called the ‘trust’ in academic business research. Therefore, it aims to define the state-of-the-art and future research paths on this topic.
 
 Web of Science and Scopus are bibliographic databases used to collect data, and a rigorous and transparent methodological protocol has been used to conduct a systematic literature review.
 
 The study of bibliometric data and the content analysis of the research sample allow for insightful considerations, showing the main business areas dealing with trusts (the financial, historical, and corporate governance areas) and mapping the specific sub-topics of each one. Moreover, a new trend outlines the increasing interest in trusts and connected institutions (investment trusts, trust companies, unit trust funds, real estate investment trusts) from the traditional UK and US contexts to new emerging countries such as China, Malaysia, and South Africa. In conclusion, many gaps in the literature and opportunities for future business research are outlined.
 
 This study helps overcome the traditional juridical study perspective of trusts, showing many links with businesses and corporations and encouraging scholars to investigate the trusts in the business world.

Performance profiling of the unit trust funds in Malaysia with data mining techniques

Background: Millennials are exposed to many investment opportunities, and they have shown their interest in gaining more income via investments. One popular investment avenue is unit trusts. However, analysing unit trusts’ financial data and gaining valuable insights may not be as simple because not everyone has the required financial knowledge and adequate time to perform in-depth analytics on the numerous financial data. Furthermore, it is not easy to compile the performance of each unit trust available in Malaysia. The primary objective of this research is to identify unit trust funds that provide higher returns than their average peers via performance profiling. Methods: This research proposed a performance profiling on Malaysia unit trust funds using the two data mining techniques, i.e., Expectation Maximisation (EM) and Apriori, to assist amateur retail investors to choose the right unit trust based on their risk tolerance. EM clustered the unit trust funds in Malaysia into several groups based on their annual financial performances. This was then followed by finding the rules associated with each cluster by applying Apriori. The resulted rules shall serve the purpose of profiling the clustered unit trust funds. Retail investors can then select their preferred unit trust funds based on the performance profile of the clusters. Results: The yearly average total return of the financial year 2018 and 2019 was used to evaluate unit trust funds’ performance in the clusters. The evaluation results indicated that the profiling could provide valuable and insightful information to retail investors with varying risk appetites. Conclusions: This research has demonstrated that the financial performance profiling of unit trust funds could be acquired via data mining approaches. This valuable information is crucial to unit trust investors for selecting suitable funds in investment.

A Case Study of Zakat Accounting for Islamic Unit Trust Fund in Malaysia

Zakat accounting means the process of identifying assets required for zakat, determining the conditions of assets, confirming the applicable zakat rates, and assessing the zakat on the related assets. The rate of payable zakat was determined at 2.5 per cent. However, it is argued if zakat were imposed on the shares' capital value. Is it fair and sensible if zakat based on physical asset is imposed solely on the income generated by the asset? Data were collected from documents analysis. The data then analyzed by content analysis. As a result, on 7th July 2011, Selangor government has issued the fatawa that zakat for unit trust would be based on ‘urud tijarah (trade goods). Meaning, zakat is imposed on the value of the shares and the income generated from the share. Based on content analysis of secondary data, the result shows that the zakat accounting for IUTF must be based on the intention of owning the shares in IUTF.

Portfolio performance under dynamic systematic risk and conditional betas: the South African unit trust market

This study examines whether South African unit trust managers can outperform the market and demonstrate distinct market-timing abilities under systematic dynamic risk. A conditional portfolio evaluation method is used under dynamic systematic risk. The BEKK-MGARCH model is applied to estimate the time-varying CAPM beta. The sample of the study includes 86 unit trust funds for the hardly studied multi-asset class between 2010 and 2019 in South Africa. The findings of the study show positive evidence that portfolio managers in the South African unit trust market possess some skills for market timing and outperformance. These results differ from most of the outcomes obtained through model-free performance-evaluation methods. The significant contribution of this study to the literature is in conditioning beta to both time and economic variables within the same asset pricing model, and then applying it to the emerging market of South Africa. Another strength of this paper is maintaining patient and formal adherence to econometric requirements of model validation. The empirical findings of the study should benefit portfolio managers, investors, and regulators with updated insight into the importance of considering both risk variability and changing economic factors in portfolio evaluation.

DISCOURSE ON FUND SIZE PARADIGMS AND PERFORMANCE OF UNIT TRUST FUNDS IN KENYA

When investors take part in any investment, the main objective is to increase their wealth. This is achieved when share prices increase. The performance of unit trusts in Kenya has however been poor compared to their counterparts in the rest of the world. The poor performance is a discouragement to individual and corporate investors in addition to affecting the realization of financial stability according to the Kenya vision 2030. Empirical literature from developed and emerging markets posits that fund size explains the performance of unit trust funds. This study, therefore, investigated the effects of fund size on the performance of unit trust funds in Kenya. The study adopted an explanatory research design and positivism philosophy. The target population was 16 unit trust firms in Kenya as of the end of the year 2017. The study used a census approach. Secondary data was collected from the audited financial statement of respective unit trusts for the period 2005 to 2017 using a data collection schedule. The study established that fund size has a significant positive effect on performance in all funds. The study concluded that an increase in fund size increases performance. The study recommends that capital market authority should monitor the performance of unit trusts constantly and in addition develop merger policies to encourage small unit trusts to merge to take advantage of economies of scale.

Performanceprofiling of theunittrustfundsin Malaysiawithdataminingtechniques.

Millennials are exposed to many investment opportunities, and they have shown their interest in gaining more income via investments. One popular investment avenue is unit trusts. However,analysingunit trusts'financial data and gaining valuable insights may not beas simplebecause not everyone has the required financial knowledge and adequate time to perform in-depth analytics on the numerous financial data. Furthermore, it is not easy to compile the performance of each unit trust available in Malaysia. The primary objective of this research is to identify unit trust funds that provide higher returns than their average peers via performance profiling. Methods:This research proposed a performance profiling on Malaysia unit trust funds using the two data mining techniques, i.e., ExpectationMaximisation(EM) andApriori, to assist amateur retail investors to choose the right unit trust based on their risk tolerance. EM clustered the unit trust funds in Malaysia into several groups based on their annual financial performances.This was thenfollowed by finding the rules associated with each cluster by applyingApriori. Theresultedrules shall serve the purpose of profiling the clustered unit trust funds. Retail investors can then select their preferred unit trust funds based on the performance profile of the clusters. Results:Theyearlyaveragetotalreturnofthefinancial year2018and 2019was usedto evaluateunit trust funds'performanceinthe clusters. The evaluation results indicated that the profiling could provide valuable and insightful information to retail investors with varying risk appetites. Conclusions:This researchhasdemonstrated that the financial performance profiling of unit trust fundscould be acquired via data miningapproaches. Thisvaluable information iscrucialto unit trust investorsforselecting suitablefundsininvestment.

Performance of Unit Trust Funds between Conventional and Islamic Funds in Malaysia using Data Envelopment Analysis

This study aims to analyse the current performance of unit trust funds between conventional and Islamic funds using data envelopment analysis because most Malaysians are incapable to distinguish between conventional and Islamic unit trust funds performances since they tend to assume both funds perform similarly. This paper uses 20 authorised funds by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) for three years by using trailing data that consists of volatility element as input and total return as output. Indeed, the funds selected do not mix asset classes of funds, instead relying solely on equity funds to create a fair and reasonable ranking. The study employs Data Envelopment Analysis by testing two different models, namely Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes input oriented (CCR-I) model and Banker, Charnes, and Cooper input oriented (BCC-I) model. The use of two models in this study is to ensure that the results of the ranking analysis are more accurate and precise. Both models employ the input-oriented model function as a means of maximising efficiency in order to increase the number of fairies. The efficiency of Islamic funds is more consistent than that of conventional funds for both models, as several Islamic funds maintain their position at the top of the efficient rank. However, there is a significant increase in conventional funds because 80% of the selected conventional funds that are not efficient in the CCR-I model achieve the efficiency level in the BCC-I model. As a result, there are four unit trust funds that are consistent in occupying efficiency level when tested for both CCR-I model and BCC-I model whereby three out of four are Islamic funds while the other is conventional fund. The Islamic funds consist of Apex Dana Aslah, BIMB i Growth Fund, and Maybank Malaysia Growth-I Fund while KAF Tactical Fund is conventional fund. Ultimately, it is concluded that Islamic funds perform better than conventional funds in Malaysia for the 3 years period ending 31 March 2021.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON FIXED INCOME UNIT TRUST FUND AND EQUITY UNIT TRUST FUND PERFORMANCES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS IN MALAYSIA

The shock of the global COVID-19 pandemic is critical even compared to the great financial crisis of 2007–2008 (Sansa, 2020). This study emphasises the performances of equity unit trust funds and fixed income unit trust funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, applying daily data from January 2020 to June 2020. A total of 32 unit trust funds are selected for the study, consisting of 16 fixed income funds and 16 equity funds. The performance of the unit trust funds is examined by using the Sharpe ratio measure, Treynor ratio measure, and Jensen’s alpha measure to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the funds. The findings of this research suggest a mixed result of performance, where some funds outperformed the market benchmark while others underperformed it. For the fixed income unit trust funds, both the average standard deviation and average beta underperformed the benchmark index. On the contrary, the total risk of equity funds is higher than the market benchmark, while systematic risk is lower than the market benchmark. Besides, based on the results of Jensen’s alpha, only a few unit trust funds have a positive alpha, implying that some of the fund managers are either good in market timing or in selecting unit trust funds. Investors and fund managers can benefit from this study when making decisions to enhance their portfolios’ performances during the crucial period. This study will also provide a general outlook on the behaviour and performance of unit trust funds in Malaysia during the selected period of the COVID-19 crisis.

DETERMINANTS THAT INFLUENCE THE ACTUAL BEHAVIOUR TO INVEST IN UNIT TRUST FUNDS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE SALESPERSON

Despite the inherent and much-publicised benefits of investing in unit trust funds, not everyone is investing in them. Investing in unit trust funds, which is open to everyone, offers the investor, at low risks, returns which are potentially higher than those of savings, fixed deposit or even Employees Provident Fund. The relatively higher returns from unit trust investments could help the investor secure a more financially sound future, especially when it comes to his or her retirement. Based on observations, given the same socio-economic backgrounds, some people are more willing to invest in unit trust funds compared to others. Many probable factors are influencing a person’s decision to invest in unit trust funds. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Trait Theory, this study aims to identify and examine those factors, especially the role of the salesperson, which can influence the intention to invest in unit trust funds, thus contributing to the body of knowledge about the Theory of Planned Behaviour in this regards. It is hoped that the findings of this study could help unit trust companies and other relevant parties design a more effective approach in encouraging more Malaysians to invest in unit trust funds and help them secure a more financially sound future. Data will be collected through a questionnaire by way of purposive sampling. Based on Cochran’s formula, 500 questionnaires will be distributed throughout Sabah, the sample population. The Independent Variables identified are attitude, subjective norm, a salesperson’s attributes and perceived behavioural control while the dependent variable is behaviour to invest in the unit trust. A pilot study on the questionnaire, which has been converted into Google form, had been distributed. A total of 44 complete questionnaires were considered for analysis, following which all the questions contained in the questionnaire passed the Cronbach’s Alpha Test for reliability.

Fund Size and Performance of Unit Trust Funds in Kenya

When investors take part in any investment, the main objective is to increase their wealth. This is achieved when share prices increase. The performance of unit trusts in Kenya has however been poor compared to the counterparts in the rest of the world. The poor performance is a discouragement to individual and corporate investors in addition to affecting the realisation of financial stability according to the Kenya vision 2030. Empirical literature from developed and emerging markets posits that fund size explain the performance of unit trust funds. This study therefore investigated the effects of fund size on the performance of unit trust funds in Kenya. The study adopted an explanatory research design and positivism philosophy. The target population was 16 unit trust firms in Kenya as at the end of the year 2017. The study used a census approach. Secondary data was collected from the audited financial statement of respective unit trusts for the period 2005 to 2017 using a data collection schedule. The study established that fund size has significant positive effect on performance in all funds. The study concluded that increase in fund size increases performance. The study recommends that capital market authority should monitor performance of unit trusts constantly and in addition develop merger policies to encourage small unit trust to merge in order to take advantage of economies of scale.

A comparative analysis of Islamic unit trust portfolio using value at risk methodologies

Islamic unit trust is a sunrise industry in the Malaysian capital market over the last decades to fulfill the demand from its Muslim investors. Muslim investors are only willing to invest their capital if the investment does not conflict with their religious beliefs, namely Islam. Previously, most of the studies focused to evaluate the performance of unit trust funds relative to the market as a whole. Meanwhile, it is also important for investors to accurately measure their downside risk because it is closely related to their future losses. Thus, Value at Risk (VaR) concept was introduced to calculate monthly risk for an Islamic unit trust portfolio using the three standard approaches which are Delta Normal, Historical Simulation and Monte Carlo Simulation. Results show that Monte Carlo Simulation is the best method to quantify risk exposure as the average Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) is the lowest compared to the other two methods. The findings also highlight the importance of embedding risk into investment analyses and provide insights to investors who are considering Shariah-compliant equity funds as a potential income-generating instrument. Therefore, financial consultants or fund managers can make informed decisions in setting up a well-diversified unit trust fund’s portfolio for their Muslim investors by applying the concept of VaR and its methodologies.

Analysis of the Acceptance of Newly Constructed Mathematical Model for Islamic Unit Trust among Public

A new mathematical model for Islamic unit trust fund was constructed based on the Integration model and the gaps discovered from existing model of Islamic unit trust in Malaysia. The gaps are payment of zakat/tax and additional benefit for investors. The aim of this study is to investigate the acceptance of public on this new constructed mathematical model. A total of 150 respondents were chosen among investors from Terengganu which has at least one unit of Islamic unit trust fund in Malaysia. The questionnaires distributed consist of four variables, where three were independent variables and one was dependent variable and analysed by using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). By using a Spearman’s correlation, it is found that each independent variable has moderate and strong correlation with the single variable. This can be concluded that the public has accepted this new constructed mathematical model. This study suggested that this new mathematical model is implemented by Islamic unit trust management in Malaysia and also, for investors to choose the Islamic unit trust which offer more benefits.

Disclosure Practices Among Unit Trust Funds in Malaysia

This study examined the level of transparency among unit trust funds in Malaysia. Unit trust funds were the focus of this study due to its nature: unique, heavily regulated and rapidly growing. The study investigated the extent of disclosure in relation to the various mandatory and voluntary requirements and the roles of the specific characteristics of trust funds in explaining their level of disclosure in the annual reports. The findings showed that the level of disclosure increased rapidly within the period of study suggesting that trust funds were becoming more transparent. With regard to the funds' specific characteristics, the study showed that the influence was not consistent. The model best explained the disclosure level during the pre-mandatory period, i.e. 1996. During this year, the variables 'sponsor of the fund' and 'auditors' significantly influenced the disclosure level in the predicted direction. In the other years (1997 and 1998), the explanatory power of the model was very low as suggested by the significant reduction in the adjusted R2. One argument was that during this period, the revised Guidelines had been issued and thus the model could not explain much the variation in the disclosure level as a large amount of the items in the study were already mandated.