NBP Financial Sector Fund (NFSF), managed by NBP Fund Management Limited, emerged as the top performing conventional stock fund in its category during FY2026, delivering a return of 70.4% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026. The fund significantly outperformed its benchmark, the KSE-30 Total Return Index, which recorded a 49.4% return over the same period. The difference represents an outperformance of approximately 21 percentage points, according to the fund’s June 2026 Fund Manager’s Report prepared under the standardized format of the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan (MUFAP).
The 70.4% return also represents the strongest fiscal year performance recorded by NBP Financial Sector Fund since its launch in February 2018. NBP Fund Management has highlighted the result in its marketing campaign for the scheme, with the performance coming during a period in which Pakistan’s banking and financial stocks experienced a broad re-rating. The fund’s performance also marked a significant change from the previous fiscal year. In FY25, NBP Financial Sector Fund generated a 61.8% return, compared with 64.2% for its benchmark, meaning the fund had trailed the benchmark during that period. In FY26, however, the fund moved ahead of its benchmark by a substantial margin.
Since its inception, NBP Financial Sector Fund has generated an annualized return of 22.1%, compared with 20.7% for its benchmark. This represents an annualized outperformance of 1.4 percentage points over the period since the scheme was launched. NFSF is an open-end equity fund focused on listed companies operating in the banking, insurance and investment sectors. As of June 30, 2026, the fund had net assets of Rs2.601 billion, with approximately 88.6% of its assets invested in equities and the remaining portion held in cash.
The fund’s portfolio at the end of FY26 was heavily concentrated in major banking companies. Askari Commercial Bank represented the largest holding at 16.8% of total assets, followed by United Bank Limited at 11.1%, Meezan Bank at 11.0%, MCB Bank at 9.7% and Habib Bank Limited at 8.9%. Bank AL Habib accounted for 7.6% of assets, while National Bank of Pakistan represented 7.5%. Habib Metropolitan Bank made up 7.2% and Bank Alfalah accounted for 4.7%. The portfolio also included a smaller insurance exposure, led by Adamjee Insurance at 1.6%. The fund’s substantial exposure to Askari Bank, which was almost twice the size of its second-largest position, appears to have been an important contributor to its outperformance against the more diversified KSE-30 benchmark.
Performance across other financial sector funds varies depending on the measurement period. Several mutual fund schemes in Pakistan carry Financial Sector branding, but audited FY26 returns for all of them were not available in the same standardized July-to-June format. For comparison, MUFAP’s daily performance summary as of August 17, 2026 provides calendar year-to-date, one-month, three-month and trailing one-year returns rather than fiscal-year performance.
According to the MUFAP snapshot, NBP Financial Sector Fund had a net asset value of 26.03 as of August 13, with a calendar year-to-date return of 4.59%, a one-month return of 5.38%, a three-month return of 12.03% and a trailing one-year return of 38.51%. UBL Financial Sector Fund, managed by UBL Fund Managers, recorded a NAV of 332.44 as of August 16 and posted a 5.58% calendar year-to-date return, 3.93% over one month, 16.26% over three months and 31.23% over the trailing one-year period.
Atlas Financial Sector Fund, managed by Atlas Asset Management, had a NAV of 102.82 as of August 15. The fund recorded a 5.12% calendar year-to-date return, 2.98% over one month and 12.37% over three months. It did not have a full one-year track record on MUFAP’s system because of its relatively recent launch. MCB Financial Sector Fund, managed by MCB-Arif Habib Savings, had a NAV of 97.40 as of August 16 and recorded a negative 2.60% calendar year-to-date return, while its one-month return stood at 4.03%. The fund was newly launched in 2026, leaving insufficient history for meaningful three-month and one-year comparisons.
The current performance figures show that UBL Financial Sector Fund is ahead of NBP Financial Sector Fund on calendar year-to-date and three-month performance, with returns of 5.58% and 16.26%, respectively, compared with NBP’s 4.59% and 12.03%. NBP, however, maintains a stronger trailing one-year return at 38.51%, compared with UBL’s 31.23%.
The difference between NBP Financial Sector Fund’s 70.4% FY26 return and its 38.51% trailing one-year return as of mid-August reflects the different measurement periods. FY26 ended on June 30, 2026 and captured a particularly strong period for Pakistan’s banking stocks, while the subsequent period included more moderate market movements. MUFAP’s August 17 performance sheet showed comparatively modest changes across the fund’s shorter-term one-day, 15-day and 30-day periods. The FY26 performance therefore places NBP Financial Sector Fund at the top of its conventional financial sector peer group for the fiscal year, while the latest MUFAP figures show that performance rankings can differ when measured across shorter or rolling periods.
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