Daman's Arabian Programmed Trading Fund (APTF) records 2.35% growth in January 2005

Despite the fall of the UAE market by 8.43%, the APTF rose to touch a net asset value (NAV) of US$124.83 on January 26, 2006 as against an NAV of US$121.96 on December 29, 2005.

Commenting on the positive performance of APTF in an overall downward market, Mr. Shehab Gargash, Managing Director of Daman said: "We are very pleased that APTF has once again performed positively in a volatile market situation. This is exactly what the fund is designed to do and its track record since inception has justified our confidence in its intelligent indexing structure."

Daman's flagship UAE Value Fund (DUV) recorded a decline of 7.87% for the first month of this year in its ex-dividend NAV which fell to AED420.16 on February 1, 2006, from AED456.06 on January 1, 2006.

For the same period, the benchmark NBAD Index fell 8.43% to 15,666.49 points on February 1, 2006 from 17,108.45 on January 1, 2006.

"The market's underlying negative sentiment during the month pulled values down but our portfolio managers were able to minimize the impact given the circumstances," said Mr. Gargash.

For 2005, the DUV Fund paid a record annual dividend of AED40, an 8.77% annual dividend yield.