WORLD - INDEX - Changes Made To Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes

www.djindexes.com -Changes Follow Regular Annual Review - LONDON (7 June 2012) – Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced the results of the regular annual review of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index and its three subindexes, Dow Jones Islamic Market U.S. Titans 50 Index, Dow Jones Islamic Market Asia/Pacific Titans 25 Index and Dow Jones Islamic Market Europe Titans 25 Index as well as the Dow Jones Islamic Market Malaysia Titans 25 Index. All changes will be effective after the close of trading on Friday, June 15, 2012.
In the Dow Jones Islamic Market Titans 100 Index and subindex Dow Jones Islamic Market U.S. Titans 50 Index, Baker Hughes Inc., Corning Inc. and Marathon Oil Corp. will be replaced by eBay Inc., Express Scripts Holding Co. and Nike Inc. Cl B.  (source)

WORLD - CAPITAL MARKETS - OIC/Economy: Unified Islamic stock index to make stock market attractive for Muslim investors

www.iina.me - BAKU (Azerbaijan), 24 Rabi al-Thani/17 March (IINA)-The unified stock index of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will facilitate the development of the financial sector. It will allow the Muslim companies to more actively operate on stock trading. As it is known, the constraints imposed by Sharia law, in fact, excluded many companies from the Muslim countries from the financial business sector.

OIC member-countries intensified the operations to create a single stock index. The Department for OIC affairs under the Turkish Development Ministry, which is one of the most active participants in this process, indicated that the work on the establishment of an Islamic stock index has been conducted for five years. There is growing interest in this process among many Islamic countries. (source)

INDONESIA - FINANCE - Computerized Design BI For The Real Sector Index

WWW.REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia is preparing a model for the real sector index for the reference yields Islamic bank financing. Models are organized by computerized in order to be updated every day.

Director of the Directorate of Islamic Banking Bank Indonesia, Mulya Effendi Siregar, said computerized model of the index for the real sector will use the information from public and nonpublic companies. The results of manual calculations of such information has previously been done.  (source)

INDONESIA - BANKING - Return Index for the Benchmark Pricing Real Sector Islamic Banking Products

www.pkesinteraktif.com - In many forums, both formal as well as training seminars or non-formal forums such as assemblies and lectures taklim off, one of the frequently asked questions critical to the legitimacy of sharia Islamic banking is a result of pricing products that are believed to refer to interest rates. I remember once when the first question even this became my main tool to criticize the application of Islamic banking in the country. How could so-called Islamic sharia if the price of the product specified or calculated referring to usury? How can we justify the logic of the movement who want to destroy the root of evil in the financial practices of usury, usury is still used throughout as the reference price of the product? Had not anyone wear, during which there will always be riba? (source)

INDONESIA - CAPITAL MARKETS - Trade and Services Sector Shares Sharia Domination

www.pkesinteraktif.com - Jakarta (29/2) - Currently in stock sharia, trade, services, and investment is the most dominant sector. This was disclosed Head of Market Development Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) Irwan Abdalloh to pkesinteraktif.com few days ago.

He said 237 shares of sharia, trade, services, and investment has its share of 28%. The rest was divided on agriculture, mining, various industrial, commercial goods industry, property, and infrastructure.

"As the number of stocks that move in this sector (trade, services, and investments) at most, then this sector is also the most demanding investors," he said. (source)

INDONESIA - BANKING - Islamic banks waiting for establishment Islamic benchmark

WWW.TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Islamic Bank will continue to wait for the certainty of Bank Indonesia (BI) associated with the establishment of Islamic benchmark. They claim will not necessarily adopt the benchmark index.

Director of Bank Muamalat Indonesia (BMI), Arviyan Arifin, welcomed the plan to launch a benchmark BI shariah bank. "For us it's a good plan," he told Tempo on Sunday, February 19, 2012. (source)

INDONESIA - INDEX - Margin refers to the results from the real sector index

www.bisnis.com - JAKARTA: While not using the system of interest, but Islamic banking has been making the interest rate on conventional industry as a reference for determining the level of yield and margin financing.
This is because the Islamic financial industry has not had a reference in determining the return for financing to individual industrial sectors.
However, the influence of interest in the conventional market for Islamic industry is perceived to be reduced because Bank Indonesia (BI) immediately launched an index rate of return of the real sector in the country. (source)

INDONESIA - INDEX - BI to launch the Real Sector Index Reference For Islamic Banking

www.pkesinteraktif.com - Jakarta (6/2) - Bank Indonesia (BI) will launch as a reference index of the real sector financing of Islamic banking. Because of all this is the reference for Islamic banks such as Bank Rate is the interest rate.

"BI is an index to calculate the real sector since 2010 and will introduce an index to the bank this month," says researcher Associate Directorate of Islamic Banking BI, Rifki Ismal to reporters after the panel discussion "Sustainable Strategies of Sharia Banking in Indonesia in Response to the Global Economic Challenges' at the University of Bakrie, Jakarta, Monday (6/2).  (source)

AUSTRALIA - INDEX - Australia to Get First Islamic Index

www.wsj.com - Thomson Reuters is on the brink of giving Australia its first Islamic index.

Starting in early February, Thomson Reuters and Australia’s Crescent Wealth are jointly launching Islamic Australia Index — a research-based index that will offer local and international investors a tool to help invest in accordance with Islamic investment principles in the local market.

The initiative comes ahead of an expected government proposal to change tax guidelines to help open up the local market for Islamic investment products, though there remains some concern about the market’s growth potential.(source)

WORLD - CAPITAL MARKETS - Sharia investing leans to West

Islamic benchmarks have consistently outperformed conventional ones

To some observers of Islamic equity investing, Islamic or Sharia-compliant equity indexes seem to imply investing in publicly-listed companies in Muslim countries.

The end results contradict the assumptions. This also rebuts allegations by many from the anti-Sharia movement that Islamic investing is about investing in companies linked to terrorism or financing terrorism. The largest companies in the S&P Global BMI Sharia include ExxonMobil, IBM, Chevron, Nestle and Microsoft.

Today, there is a large stock count and market capitalisation weighting bias towards the non-Muslim G20 countries in all global Islamic equity indexes. We will look at country exposure of Sharia-compliant companies, the economic sector exposure and selected Muslim country Islamic indexes, and how to increase number of Sharia-compliant companies. (source)

WORLD - OPINION - Ramadan-inspired Dates Index

As a student of Islamic finance, there are a number of important lessons captured over the years, and today’s focus will be why there is no real need to “Islamicise” everything.

 

I have been fortunate enough to be involved in many interesting conversations over the years from the potentially practical (Islamic stock exchange, Islamic LIBOR, convergence between Islamic finance and Halal industry), to potentially flawed (Islamic inflation, Islamic unemployment, consumer price index (CPI), Islamic car, Islamic washing machine), and the potentially feasible (Islamic currency, Dinar).   (source)

WORLD - INDEX - Thomson Reuters sets up Islamic indices

THOMSON Reuters and IdealRatings yesterday launched the Thomson Reuters IdealRatings Islamic Indices, the first Islamic benchmark offering research-based Syariah screening based on globally accepted standards, to investors, money managers and analysts across a range of Islamic instruments.

The indices, which will provide the most transparent Islamic guidelines for investors around the world, will also act as a transaction channel for potential investment to Malaysia. (source)

INDEX - Malaysian firms form core of SAMI Halal Food Index

Sime Darby, Nestle (M) and Genting Plantations are among the top companies on the Socially Acceptable Market Investments Halal Food Index.
 
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian listed food companies form over a third of the 274 companies in the newly-launched SAMI (Socially Acceptable Market Investments) Halal Food Index.

These 95 companies represent over two-fifths or US$53 billion (RM161 billion) of the index's total market capitalisation of US$114 billion (RM345 billion).

Sime Darby Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd and Genting Plantations Bhd are among the top companies on the index, Thomson Reuters global head of Islamic finance and OIC countries Rushdi Siddiqui said.

"This adds feather to Malaysia's Islamic finance hub and the convergence of both (Islamic finance and halal industry)," he told a news conference on the sidelines of World Halal Forum (WHF) 2011 here yesterday.

Also present were Deloitte Malaysia global leader of Islamic finance Daud Vicary Abdullah, WHF director (Malaysia/the UK) Abdalhamid Evans and AmIslamic Funds Management chief executive officer Datin Maznah Mahbob.(full story)

INDEX - Reuniting the 'twins separated at birth'

QUESTION: How did the idea of a halal food index come about?

A: I was looking to expand the bandwidth of Islamic investing, and saw the industry looking at Islamic hedge funds and other turbo-charged instruments which the "Muslim man in the street" can neither relate to nor access. The question to answer was: is there an asset class that can be explained in a 30-second elevator pitch, where the same "man" would understand immediately and want to invest in?( full story)

INDEX - World's first halal food index launched

KUALA LUMPUR: The halal food industry has now become an asset class within the investment community with the launch of the world's first halal food indices, called SAMI (Socially Acceptably Market Investments) Halal Food Index and SAMI Halal Participation Index today.

Launched at the ongoing World Halal Forum 2011 (WHF2011) here, both the indices would provide a platform for investors seeking syariah-compliant ethical investment opportunities, said Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head Islamic Finance Thomson Reuters USA. (full story)

INDEXES - OPINION - Dow Jones Islamic Markets commentary: Lessons from the turmoil (DJIM Indonesia)

INTERNATIONAL. It is of no surprise that the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIM) covering Arab stock markets suffered the largest losses in February. Political crisis and civil unrest in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Morocco, escalating even to a civil war like in Libya, weighed on the markets.


The turmoil led the DJIM Kuwait Index to drop 8.64% to close at 908.36 (as of February 22’s close of trading). (source)

MARKET DATA - Bloomberg launches Islamic finance platform

THE Bloomberg Islamic Finance Platform (ISLM) launched yesterday is expected to give investment professionals the edge the need to make informed decisions and meet the increasing demands of investors and regulators.

The platform, designed to increase transparency, better connectivity and provide analytical tools to maximise investment performance in the rapidly growing market for Syariah-compliant products and services, was launched by Bloomberg Professional Service here today. (source)

FINANCIAL MARKETS - Muslim Nations Plan Stock Index Next Year to Spur Trade: Islamic Finance - Turkey to coordinate

Huseyin Erkan, chairman and chief executive officer of Istanbul Stock Exchange. 

Photographer: Jamie Rector/Bloomberg