DSAM Kauthar gold fund up 67.61%

The Dubai Shariah Asset Management (DSAM) Kauthar Gold Fund recorded a rise of 67.61 per cent in 2009, a senior official associated with the fund's management told Emirates Business.

The fund had recorded a gain of 51.48 per cent by the end of third quarter of 2009. The fund is managed jointly by Dubai Commodities and Assets Management (DCAM), a Dubai Multi Commodities Centre subsidiary and Shariah Capital, a US based company.

Besides all the fund's sister funds which are managed jointly by DCAM and Shariah Capital recorded high gains. "All our funds have done well in 2009. The gold fund, the global resources fund (DSAM Kauthar Global Resources and Mining Fund) rose 55.17 per cent and the energy fund (DSAM Kauthar Energy Fund) rose 41.71 per cent," the official said. The DSAM Kauthar Natural Resources Fund rose 3.19 per cent according to statistics made available to this paper.

The DSAM Kauthar Commodity Fund (DKCF), the fund of funds that represents the performance of the four DSAM funds rose 41.19 pe rcent the last year, the official said. For each subscription in DKCF, 25 per cent is allocated to each of the four DSAM Kauthar Funds.

"As far as the performance of the gold fund is concerned, we have outperformed all the benchmark indices including the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index," the official said.

The DSAM Kauthar Gold Fund invests exclusively in the units of the Tocqueville Gold Focus Fund, a subtrust of the Al Safi Trust managed by Tocqueville Asset Management. The Al Safi Trust is a platform of separately-managed investment accounts at Barclays Capital supervised for Shariah compliance by Shariah Capital.

The gold fund's rise comes in tandem with the rise of bullion in 2009. The bullion rose 23.24 per cent (year-on-year) in 2009. Yesterday, the yellow metal rose 13.11 per cent and stood at $1102.31 an ounce.

Dubai based analysts are bullish on the future performance of the precious metal. "A weaker dollar has prompted short covering in Asia with the price touching $1,100 (which it later crossed) with evidence of strong physical demand from this region," said Jeffrey Rhodes the CEO of Dubai-based INTL Commodities.

Sajith Kumar PK, CEO of Dubai-based JRG International Brokerage, earlier told this paper the bullion may cross the price of $1200 an ounce by the end of this year. "The continuous rise in price of gold will support the performance of funds like the DSAM Kauthar Gold Fund," a Dubai-based analyst said.

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