Per-unit price of a fund = (total assets − liabilities) ÷ units in issue. Unit trusts price once a day at NAV. ETFs trade intra-day but converge to NAV via arbitrage.
Net Asset Value is the per-unit market value of an investment fund. It's calculated as total assets minus total liabilities, divided by the number of units in issue.
Unit trusts price once daily at NAV — orders received before the cut-off (typically 3 pm Singapore time) execute at the day's calculated NAV.
Total assets: market value of all investments held + cash + accruals (interest earned but not received, dividends declared but not paid).
Less total liabilities: management fees accrued, withholding taxes payable, redemption requests pending.
Divide by units outstanding: NAV per unit.
Example: a fund with S$100m assets, S$1m liabilities, and 99m units → NAV = (100 – 1) / 99 = S$1.0000 per unit.
ETFs trade on stock exchanges throughout the day at market prices, which can drift slightly from intrinsic NAV.
Authorised participants (APs) maintain ETF prices close to NAV through arbitrage: if ETF trades above NAV, APs deliver underlying securities to create new units and sell them at a profit. If ETF trades below NAV, they redeem units for securities.
Premium / discount to NAV: usually < 0.10% for liquid US-listed broad-market ETFs. Can widen for thinly-traded ETFs or in stressed markets.
Daily NAV change reflects: market movement of underlying securities + dividends accrued/paid + any expense-ratio drag.
Tracking a unit trust's NAV over time: most platforms (FSMOne, Endowus, banks) show daily NAV and historical performance charts.
Don't fixate on absolute NAV level. A fund at NAV S$5 isn't 'better' than one at NAV S$1 — the absolute level depends on inception price and any unit-splits or distributions over time.
The per-unit market value of a fund's holdings, calculated as (total assets − total liabilities) ÷ units in issue. Unit trusts are priced and traded at NAV once a day; ETFs trade intra-day at market prices that closely track NAV via arbitrage.
Daily at a defined cut-off (typically end of trading day in the underlying market). Total value of holdings + cash + accrued income, minus management fees and taxes payable, divided by units outstanding. Published the next business day.
Slightly. ETFs trade at market price that can deviate from intrinsic NAV by small premiums or discounts. Authorised participants arbitrage these deviations toward NAV. For liquid US-listed broad-market ETFs, deviations are typically under 0.1%. Thinly-traded ETFs can deviate more.
Mostly no. For unit trusts, you transact at the next-day NAV regardless. For ETFs, sanity-check premium/discount during volatile markets (rare for big funds). For most retail investors, NAV mechanics are an academic detail.