Markaz 'Mumtaz' fund receives Gold Fund Grading from Standard and Poor's

Amani Al-Omani, Executive Vice President - MENA Equities at Markaz, said, "Standard & Poor's offers professional investors credible and independent analysis and evaluation of funds; which is based on a thorough comparative process, taking into account several quantitative and qualitative factors. The 'Gold' Fund Grading received by Markaz 'Mumtaz' Fund is a testimonial to the high standard of our investment process, the consistency of our performance, and the ability of the Fund Management to adapt to fast changing market conditions."

Al-Omani added, "This grading, among other awards, reaffirms Markaz's position as a leading asset management firm that delivers superior performance. Our achievements are a result of our constant effort to meet the stated investment objectives across our diverse investment product range, while striving to minimize and control the risk during periods of high volatility."

"Mumtaz" is an actively managed fund, aiming to outperform the benchmark index over the long term through investing in Kuwaiti equities, primarily large-caps. The fund has a core of mid-/ long-term holdings and a small number of more trading-oriented holdings. Investment decisions heavily rely on top-down research, factoring macro-economic variables such as oil price and interest rate levels. The top down research helps define the areas worth researching. At the stock level, a team of analysts regularly screens from the universe of stocks in each target sector, relying on a proprietary database to identify opportunities, which is constantly updated with the most recent information obtained from the market and industry contacts. The fund preferably invests in those stocks with good sustainable growth prospects that are trading at a discount to their intrinsic value.

The fund manager is, however, equally aware of market sentiment and the influence of price momentum, and is pragmatic in letting the fund's winners run with the help of technical analysis used to identify positive news flow not yet incorporated into the share price. The full report can be accessed at Markaz website.

Markaz's track record in asset management in Kuwait and the GCC extends back to more than two decades. In 1983, the company started offering portfolio management services in the Kuwaiti Market. In 1999, "Markaz" entered the fund management field with the launch of the first Kuwaiti Equities Fund - Mumtaz, which has won seven Lipper Awards in the years 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012.