This paper aims to examine the comparative performance of equity and balanced unit trust funds before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is from January 2014 to December 2018 and January 2019 to December 2020. To achieve the aforementioned study objective, the study conducted by using three model measures, Sharpe, Treynor and Jensen’s alpha Index. The findings of this study carry out the COVID-19 pandemic does not affect the performance of equity and balanced unit trust funds. Investors gain a return from equity funds and balanced funds into a well-diversified domestic investment portfolio. To be concluded that unit trust funds help investors to put their money in different baskets of investment avenues to minimize the risk of loss of money, especially during a turbulent market. Future studies may investigate the features of fixed-income-based unit trusts, such as government and corporate bonds with commercial and social goals and as a mechanism for promoting environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations towards establishing a low-carbon economy.
Abdullah, F., Hassan, T., & Mohamad, S. (2007). Investigation of performance of Malaysian Islamic unit trust funds: Comparison with conventional unit trust funds. Managerial Finance, 33(2), 142–153.
Abdullah, N. A. H., & Shari, A. (2019). A comparative analysis of fixed income unit trust funds versus equity unit trust funds in Malaysia. Asian Academy of Management Journal of Accounting and Finance, 15(2), 95-117.
Alam, N., Tang, K. B., & Rajjaque, M. S. (2016). A comparative performance of conventional and Islamic unit trusts: Market timing and persistence evidence. In Islamic Finance 105-121.
Alwi, S., Ahmad, R., Hashim, I. Z. A., & Naim, N. M. (2019). Investigating the Islamic and conventional mutual fund performance: Evidence from Malaysia equity market. Journal of Modern Accounting and Auditing, 15(7), 371-384.
Boo, Y. L., Ee, M. S., Li, B., & Rashid, M. (2017). Islamic or conventional mutual funds: Who has the upper hand? Evidence from Malaysia. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 42, 183-192.
Ishak, N., Shahar, H. K., & Chee Jiun, R. C. (2021). Cyclical industries’ stock performance reaction during COVID-19: A systematic literature review. Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia.
Jensen, M. C. (1968). The performance of mutual funds in the period 1945–1964. Journal of Finance, 48(1), 389–416.
Kamil, N. K. M., Bacha, O. I., & Masih, M. (2021). Is there a diversification “cost” of Shari’ah compliance? Empirical evidence from Malaysian equities. Economic Systems, 45(1).
Kassim, S. H., & Kamil, S. (2012). Performance of Islamic unit trusts during the 2007 global financial crisis: Evidence from Malaysia. Asian Academy of Management Journal, 17(2), 59–78.
Lam, K. K. (2008). Factors affecting people investing in Mutual Fund in Malaysia: An application of the Theory of Planned Behavior.
Lai, M. M., & Lau, S. H. (2010). Evaluating mutual fund performance in an emerging Asian economy: The Malaysian experience. Journal of Asian Economics, 21(4), 378-390.
Omri, A., Soussou, K., Ben, N., & Goucha, S. (2019). On the post-financial crisis performance of Islamic mutual funds: the case of Riyad funds. Applied Economics, 51(18), 1929–1946.
Securities Commissions Malaysia. (2017). Summary of Statistics- Unit Trust Funds as at 31 Dec 2017. Retrieved from
https://www.sc.com.my/api/documentms/download.ashx?id=323a7e32-a419-4be9-a444-39316f5f18c7.
Securities Commissions Malaysia. (2019). Summary of Statistics- Unit Trust Funds as at 31 Dec 2019. Retrieved from
https://www.sc.com.my/api/documentms/download.ashx?id=323a7e32-a419-4be9-a444-39316f5f18c7
Securities Commissions Malaysia. (2020). Summary of Statistics- Unit Trust Funds as at 31 Dec 2020. Retrieved from
https://www.sc.com.my/api/documentms/download.ashx?id=4ee325c4-41b0-4085-bc94-8a068c648a8a
Securities Commissions Malaysia. (2021). Summary of Statistics- Unit Trust Funds as at 31 Dec 2021 Retrieved from
https://www.sc.com.my/api/documentms/download.ashx?id=323a7e32-a419-4be9-a444-39316f5f18c7
Shanmugam, V. P., & Ali, K. A. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on equity-oriented mutual funds: A preliminary analysis of Indian mutual funds industry. International Journal of Financial Engineering, 8(01), 2150006.
Soo-Wah, L. (2013). Investment Performance Analysis of Managerial Expertise: Evidence from Malaysian-Based International Equity Unit Trust Funds. Jurnal Pengurusan, 38.
Sharpe, W. F. (1966). Mutual fund performance. Journal of Business, 39 (January), 119–138.
Treynor, J. L. (1965). How to rate management of investment funds. Harvard Business Review, 44(3), 63–75.
Tunggal, N. Z. (2021). Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic on Fixed Income Unit Trust Fund and Equity Unit Trust Fund Performances: A Comparative Analysis in Malaysia. Labuan Bulletin of International Business and Finance (LBIBF), 85-99., Volume 19 Issue 1.
In-Text Citation: (Ishak et al., 2022)
To Cite this Article: Ishak, N., Japang, M., & Taunson, J. W. (2022). A Comparative Analysis of Equity and Balanced Unit Trust Funds before and During COVID-19 Pandemic. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(9), 277– 296.
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)
Published by Knowledge Words Publications (www.kwpublications.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
