Daman's Arabian Programed Trading Fund registers 3.46 % growth during May 2005

The first Gulf risk managed fund designed and tailored for the GCC market has posted a year to date growth of 6.48% following its launch in late March, 2005.

"The GCC markets were mixed in May with the GIC Kuwait Index down 9% and the GIC UAE Index falling by 2% - its first down month since October 2003. Only the Saudi index posted a 10% growth" said Mr. Gregor B. Scott, Managing Director, Facet Funds.

"The APTF is designed to use the flexibility of a hedge fund structure with systematic trading combining Daman's regional expertise and knowledge of the market with the modern risk management experience of Commander/Facet," he continued.

"Following our formula, in contrast to alternative GCC managed portfolios; the Fund with its active risk management strategy posted a positive return of over 3% in May. In Kuwait, the Fund was protected from the market drop as 43% of its holdings were in cash. Similarly, the Fund sold 61% of its UAE equities and will stay in cash until these shares begin to climb again or strength returns to each of the shares at lower levels," stated Mr. Shehab Gargash.

"We are extremely pleased that the Fund is performing so well after its establishment just three months ago. We believe that this performance is a strong indicator of the flexibility and value that this innovative new fund designed specifically for our regional markets can bring to an investor's portfolio" said Mr. Shehab M. Gargash, Managing Director of Daman Securities.

Meanwhile, in Ma, a month witnessing overall negative market performance in the U.A.E., the Daman UAE Value Fund declined by 5.7% against the NBD General Index decline of 5.96% The NAV for the fund stood at AED 454.74.

So far during its 47-month life, the UAE Value Fund has registered 42 months of growth versus just 35 for the benchmark NBAD Index. During 2005, the Fund has registered a year to date growth of 78.35%.

Since inception, the Daman UAE Value Fund has recorded nearly 400% return on investment. The UAE Value Fund growth and consistent dividend distribution have risen from AED 2.00 per share for the first quarter of operations in mid- 2001 to AED 6 per share for the first quarter of 2005.