Comparative study on selected islamic equity unit trust funds in Malaysia: Risk and return analysis / Mohd Khairul Wafi Che Cob

Malaysian Islamic unit trust funds grew significantly over the last few years. The main objectives of this paper are to evaluate and compare the return performance and risk difference between the selected Islamic equity trust funds in Malaysia for 1235 trading days beginning July 2007 until June 2012. The unit trust funds are selected based on the performance website Morningstar Asia and data availability. Investment performance measurements, Sharpe’s Index and Treynor’s Index, are used to measure their return performances and rank them in descending
order. Risk differences among the funds are calculated using standard deviation and beta regression. Risk to return diversification is determined by using coefficient of
variation. The average return of unit trust funds are regressed with the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) as the market index individually and T-test, F-test and
coefficient of determination (R Square) are interpreted. Correlation analysis between the variables is further developed to detect the movement of each variable with
respect to another. The results suggest that the return performances using the two different indexes shows inconsistency due to difference in risk associated in each
equation. Risk also noted to be different due to the same reasons. Correlation analysis results suggest there are positive but insignificant movement of unit trust
fund with respect to other funds and the market index