FinHisaab Blog
Commercial Banks and Refinery are the only two sizeable PSX sectors where equity funds raised their allocation three months running (May to August 2026). Oil and Gas Marketing reversed.
Pakistan's equity mutual funds publish a monthly sector allocation alongside their Fund Manager Reports: a snapshot of the share of each fund's net assets sitting in every PSX sector that month. Across four consecutive filings, May through August 2026, only two sectors of meaningful size show a clean, uninterrupted three-month climb: Commercial Banks and Refinery. Everything else in the top tier is flat, mixed, or reversing, sharply so in one case.
The figures below cover 85 to 92 reporting equity funds a month. Funds that hold PSX shares but are classified as hybrid or asset allocation are excluded. Every percentage is a simple average of each fund's own disclosed share of net assets. It is not weighted by fund size, so it is not the same thing as a rupee-weighted exposure figure.
Commercial Banks' average allocation rose in each of the last three months: 19.44% in May, 19.20% in June, 20.69% in July and 21.37% in August. That is a gain of 1.93 percentage points, reported by 77 of the 92 funds filing in August. Refinery moved the same way, and faster: 13.18% in May, 12.42% in June, 14.79% in July and 17.14% in August, up 3.96 points over the same window, though on a narrower base of 16 reporting funds.
| Sector | May-26 | Jun-26 | Jul-26 | Aug-26 | 3-month change | Funds reporting (Aug) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial Banks | 19.44% | 19.20% | 20.69% | 21.37% | +1.93pp | 77 |
| Refinery | 13.18% | 12.42% | 14.79% | 17.14% | +3.96pp | 16 |
Commercial Banks' breadth, three-quarters of all reporting equity funds, is what separates it from a narrower, more volatile move. Refinery's gain is larger in points, but it rests on a much smaller group of funds. A handful of funds changing position can move that sector's average by more than the same change would move a 77-fund sector.
Oil and Gas Marketing Companies looked, through July, like it belonged with Banks and Refinery: 25.74% in May, 27.14% in June and 28.04% in July. The August disclosures then showed a drop to 23.15%, a fall of 4.89 percentage points in a single month, the largest one-month sector move in this dataset, among 15 reporting funds.
Over the same month, Oil and Gas Exploration Companies, the largest sector by weight in the dataset with 81 reporting funds, held broadly flat to slightly higher: 19.29% in July to 20.28% in August, a 0.99-point gain, against a 1.22-point net decline over the full three months.
| Sector | May-26 | Jun-26 | Jul-26 | Aug-26 | 1-month change | 3-month change | Funds reporting (Aug) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oil & Gas Marketing Companies | 25.74% | 27.14% | 28.04% | 23.15% | -4.89pp | -2.58pp | 15 |
| Oil & Gas Exploration Companies | 21.50% | 20.39% | 19.29% | 20.28% | +0.99pp | -1.22pp | 81 |
A single "energy" number would blur these two into one story. They moved in opposite directions in the same month, on different bases, and the sector that reversed hardest (marketing) is the smaller by reporting-fund count.
Two more sectors show a clear three-month decline, but on bases small enough that a handful of funds account for most of the movement. Automobile Assembler fell 2.85 percentage points, from 12.14% in May to 9.28% in August, on just 6 reporting funds, with most of the decline in the first month. Power Generation and Distribution fell 1.22 points more steadily, from 9.93% to 8.71%, across 27 funds.
Cement and Fertilizer, the other two large-weight sectors (71 and 50 reporting funds respectively), were essentially flat over the three months: Cement down 0.06 points and Fertilizer up 0.57 points. Neither showed the sustained direction seen in Banks, Refinery or Oil and Gas Marketing.
These are monthly disclosures filed with a lag of several weeks. August 2026 is the latest filed month, and September's reports have not yet been published. A change in disclosed allocation reflects a position on the report date, not a trade this week.
Average allocation is a simple average across reporting funds. A change driven by one very large fund and the same change driven by several small funds look identical here. Rupee-weighted exposure figures will differ from these averages.
A sector-level view also cannot say which stocks inside a sector drive the change. Banks' rise could come from broad buying across many names or from one or two large holdings. The companion piece, which PSX stocks funds piled into and which they left, looks at the stock level and checks each large move against public company news.
You can browse the funds behind these figures, their returns and their holdings on the FinHisaab mutual funds page.
What is sector allocation in a mutual fund? It is the percentage of a fund's net assets invested in each industry sector, such as Commercial Banks or Cement. Funds disclose it monthly in their Fund Manager Reports.
Which PSX sectors did equity funds increase in the last three months? Between May and August 2026, Commercial Banks (+1.93 points) and Refinery (+3.96 points) were the two sizeable sectors with three consecutive monthly increases in average fund allocation.
Does a rising fund allocation mean a sector will go up? No. Allocation is a record of where funds held money on the report date. It does not predict future prices, and a rise can also come from the sector's prices increasing against the rest of the portfolio.
How often is fund allocation data updated? Monthly, after each fund house publishes its Fund Manager Report. There is usually a lag of a few weeks, so the latest month available is typically the previous month.
Why is the average based on reporting funds rather than fund size? A simple average shows how typical funds are positioned. A size-weighted figure would show where the money is, and would be dominated by the largest funds.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. It describes disclosed historical positions and does not recommend buying or selling any security.