Public Islamic Asia Dividend Fund (22 June 2026)
Past 1-week price change: +7.53%
What the fund does
It’s a Shariah-compliant equity fund that invests mainly in Asian companies that pay, or have the potential to pay, attractive dividends. In practice that means a good deal of exposure to Korea, Taiwan and China, with a strong tilt toward technology and industrial names. It has been around since 2007.
One thing worth knowing upfront: this is a higher-risk fund. It sits near the top of the risk scale, and its value can move sharply in both directions. More on that below.
How it has performed
Here are the returns as at 22 June 2026:
The longer-term annual figures, somewhere in the 8% to 11% a year range, are the more useful gauge of what this fund tends to do over time. The recent one-year and year-to-date numbers are unusually strong, and they shouldn’t be read as the new normal.
It’s also worth remembering the fund has had difficult stretches. It fell about 26% in 2022 and around 14% in 2018. Past performance doesn’t tell us what comes next, in either direction.
Why it has been doing well lately
Much of the recent strength comes down to where the fund invests.
Korea and Taiwan markets have been at record highs, driven largely by demand for artificial intelligence and semiconductors. Since those two markets make up a big share of the fund, that has flowed through to its numbers.
What’s inside
The fund’s largest holdings are a group of well-known Asian companies, mostly in technology. Here’s a quick sense of what they do, shared to give you a feel for the portfolio, not as individual recommendations:
Samsung Electronics (Korea): one of the world’s biggest electronics makers, known for smartphones, TVs and memory chips.
SK Hynix (Korea): a major memory-chip maker, including the high-speed memory used in AI computing.
TSMC (Taiwan): the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, producing chips designed by other companies.
Elite Material (Taiwan): makes the specialist materials that go into the circuit boards used in electronics and servers.
Hanwha Aerospace (Korea): works in aerospace and defence, including engines and related equipment.
What this means for you
A strong run is a good moment to pause and look at the bigger picture rather than just the gains.
If this fund has grown into a large slice of your portfolio, it may be worth checking whether you’ve become heavily concentrated in one region or one theme.
This isn’t about the market being bad. It’s just that staying balanced is what keeps a portfolio healthy over the long term, and unit trusts are best held with a five-year-and-above view.
If you'd like to review where this fund sits in your overall plan, or talk through whether any rebalancing makes sense, let me know and I'll suggest some options.