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Ever since the publication of the original Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) study, momentum effect has been tested vigorously to validate its pervasiveness for different time periods and across different markets. In spite of numerous out-of-sample tests, there is one apparent alibi – little research has been devised for steady increasing of Shari’ah compliant stocks.

This study is to examine the momentum strategy returns in a global Shari’ah compliant stock setting.

It finds strong presence of stock momentum returns for Pakistan and Malaysia. And the momentum returns are neither driven by industry momentum nor by the small size stocks. Though no momentum profits are found for the portfolios formed by global Shari’ah compliant stocks, this seems to be largely due to return reversal for the small size Shari’ah compliant stocks.

The strong presence of momentum profits for relatively large Shari’ah compliant stocks is a desirable trait as it indicates that the momentum trading strategies are practical and implementable.

This paper aims to study the cross section of expected returns on Shari’ah-compliant stocks in Pakistan by using single- and multi-factor asset pricing models.

To estimate cross section of expected returns of Shari’ah-compliant stocks, the study uses capital asset pricing model (CAPM), Fama-French three-factor model and Fama-French five-factor model. Data for the period 2001-2015 on 217 companies are used. For the market portfolio, PSX-100 and Dow Jones Islamic Index for Pakistan are used.

The study could not find empirical support for CAPM using Lintner (1965), Black et al. (1972) and Fama and Macbeth (1973) approach. Nonetheless, the relation between beta and returns is positive in up-market and negative in down-market. The results of Fama-French three-factor and five-factor models suggest that size premium is positive and significant for explaining the cross section of stock returns of small size stocks, whereas value premium is positive and significant for explaining the cross section of returns of high value stocks.

The results suggest that fund managers can use Shari’ah-compliant stocks for portfolio diversification and for offering specialized investments given the positive market excess returns and the existence of size and value premium on Shari’ah-compliant stocks.

This is the first study on Fama-French (2015) five-factor model for Islamic capital markets in Pakistan.

This study aims to understand and document the impact of market-based – market returns and momentum – as well as firm-specific – size, book-to-market (B/M) ratio, price-to-earnings ratio (PER) and cash flow (CF) – factors on pricing of Shari’ah-compliant securities as explanation of variations in stock returns in an emerging market – Pakistan’s Karachi Stock Exchange.

Initially, the authors test Fama and French (FF) three-factor model – market risk premium, size and B/M – followed by modified FF model by including additional risk factors (PER, CF and momentum) over a 10-year period (2001-2010).

Our results support superiority of FF three-factor model over single-factor capital asset pricing model. However, addition of further risk factors – including PER, CF and momentum – improves explanatory power of the model, as well as refines the selection of risk factors. In this study, CF, B/M and momentum factors remain insignificant. Traditional B/M factor in FF model is replaced by PER.

Based on the modified FF model, the authors propose a stock valuation model for Shari’ah-compliant securities consisting of three factors: market returns, size and earnings, which explains 76per cent variations in cross sectional stock returns.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study (which combines market-based as well as fundamental factors) on pricing of Islamic securities and identification of risk factors in an emerging market – Karachi Stock Exchange.

Most conventional financial products currently on offer to Muslims in the Indian market are incompatible with Islamic religious principles; there is a recognized demand for alternatives within this niche community. India has the third largest Muslim population in the world – 155,477,386 in 2011. The purpose of this paper is to present the status of marketing activities of Shari'ah‐based investments and a comprehensive analysis of avenues for Islamic investments in India.

In India, Islamic investment is gathering pace as Muslims in the country are becoming more vocal in their demands for greater self expression. Hence, there is a great potential in India itself. Even if a small percentage of this population can be pressured to invest in the Islamic investments, the amount of money that can be brought into the system could be enormous.

The findings reveal the emergence of Islamic investment opportunities on Shari'ah‐based investments in India. This paper also provides suggestions for enhancement of Islamic investment opportunities in India.

With a sound economic base and with hundreds of companies complying with Shari'ah norms, India offers a huge opportunity for Islamic equity investment. If performance as a parameter is considered, it is observed that Shari'ah‐compliant investments, being low in debt and having sound fundamental principles, tend to perform better, hence large non‐Muslim investors should take the benefit of these socially responsible and above par performing Islamic investments.

Shari’ah provides the basic tenets of the Islamic finance industry and advocates banks to share their profits and losses with investors. But what it means for a firm to be “Shari’ah-compliant” and what form of connections it can have, even in theory, to either the firm’s value or profitability is still an untapped question. This study tries to answer this question. This study aims to find the impact of Shari’ah compliance on firm performance. The results obtained would be useful in helping investors, regulators, companies, government, academicians and practitioners in their decision-making process as to ensure better economic and business gains, both locally and globally.

Panel data on 634 Shari’ah-compliant firms have been used in this study for the period of 2000–2014.

The results indicate that Shari’ah compliance adds to the value of firms as firms perform transactions according to Shari’ah while avoiding non-permissible activities.

This study adds value to the existing literature by showing the statistical results for the impact of Shari’ah compliance on the performance of the listed firms on Bursa Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to understand if there is a customer perceived value for shareholders in investing in Islamic stocks, by using KMI30 index of Karachi Stock Exchange as a case study. The findings are then used to devise a conceptual model, highlighting the value of an Islamic branded index and for companies included on the index for market participants, Shari'ah‐compliant firms, and governments.

This is an exploratory research paper. A detailed literature review is followed by a quantitative analysis of the return series of 18 constituents of the KMI30 index. The analysis looks at performance before and after the launch of the index, to identify if inclusion on the Islamic index has impacted the average returns and volatility of the constituents and if it is considered as value added by the investors.

Analysis reveals that the KMI30 index is marginally less volatile than the KSE100 index and has relatively better returns, even in the most volatile times at the Karachi Stock Exchange. Most of the constituents under analysis have posted better returns after inclusion on the index, with 40 per cent of them showing less volatility. Though the trends are not clearly visible, there is an indication of increased returns and reduced volatility, both in the Islamic index and its constituents.

This study is the first step in analyzing if shareholders perceive inclusion of a company on the Islamic index as value added, resulting in increased share prices, better returns, and decreased volatility. Due to the lack of literature on the subject, the nature of the study is exploratory. Further analysis is required to understand if the changes in returns and volatility are due to investor perceptions. This study has implications for the organizations to understand the perception of investors about including companies on the Islamic index. If investors attach value to this proposition then it will be worthwhile for companies to invest resources in making their organization Shari'ah compliant and marketing it from that perspective. Additionally, this study will add to the knowledge of the regulators regarding whether the Islamic index is achieving its objectives of providing investment opportunities to investors offering better returns with less risk, besides being “Halal”.

There is a lack of studies that look at Islamic investments from the marketing perspective. Also, to the best of the authors' knowledge, no studies have analyzed the KMI30 index, either from a finance or marketing perspective. This study is the authors' contribution to the interdisciplinary body of knowledge and ever‐increasing literature on emerging markets in the context of Islamic investments.

This study explores the price and trading volume effects around the quarterly Dow Jones Islamic Market-GCC index (DJIM-GCC) revisions and investigates whether these reactions are driven by firms' fundamentals or by investors' perception of ethical screening.

The authors adopt an event study methodology to analyze the price and volume effects of Islamic indices redefinitions.

The results exhibit a positive (negative) price reaction for added (deleted) stocks. The authors also document an asymmetric volume response for index additions and deletions. The multivariate analysis of the cumulative abnormal returns reveals that the documented market reaction around Islamic index revisions is mainly related to the compliance attribution (withdrawal).

The approach allows to separate the market reaction arising from changes in firms' fundamentals from that induced by investors' perception of the attribution or withdrawal of a compliance certification. Moreover, the focus on the GCC region, where countries share the same cultural traits and perceive Islamic law identically excludes any social effect that would influence the market reaction due to cultural differences between countries.

The chapter aims to examine the challenges and the opportunities for the development of Islamic stockbroking in Malaysia.

The chapter adopts library research to discuss the concept of Islamic stockbroking. It also employs a semi-structured interview with industry players to prognosticate the future development of Islamic stockbroking in Malaysia.

The study concludes that the future of Islamic stockbroking in Malaysia is very promising, triggered by drivers on both the supply side and the demand side. The large Muslim population, wealth and economic growth are among the key factors for the development of Islamic stockbroking from the demand side. On the other hand, the Shari’ah compliance of 89% of Malaysian stocks, Malaysia’s position as an Islamic finance hub and the natural progression of Islamic finance are all factors underpinning the future of Islamic stockbroking from the supply side. However, lack of qualified human resources, political inconsistency, information technology infrastructure, product innovation as well as public perception are obstacles to its development.

This chapter will add new literature in contemporary Islamic finance, as not many studies have been done on the subject.

This study aims to comparatively analyze the performance of Islamic and conventional income and equity funds using various performance evaluation methods.

The authors comparatively analyze the performance of mutual funds using measures, such as tracking error, Sharpe ratio (1966), Treynor ratio (1965), M-square measure by Modigliani and Modigliani (1997) and information ratio. The authors also use market timing and selection measures, such as Treynor and Mazuy model (1966), Henriksson and Merton (1981) model and Fama’s decomposition approach (1973).

The authors find that Islamic equity funds are as much competitive as conventional equity funds. All Islamic equity funds have positive Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio and net selectivity measure. Islamic equity funds are slightly less risky in general. Islamic equity and income funds generally have positive Jensen's Alpha and a positive market timing ability. However, the authors find that Islamic income funds generally underperform the market due to less Shari’ah-compliant investment class assets in the market.

It will help the industry players to assess their strategic positioning with regard to the commercial competitiveness of Islamic investments.

The authors take considerably large sample of 60 funds in Pakistan as compared to previous studies and also cover recent period (2006-16). For income funds, the authors construct an original benchmark index based on price and dividend data and use that in performance assessment.

The purpose of the study is to adopt Morlet’s wavelet method to examine the differences in the level of volatility (i.e. riskiness) between the conventional and Shari’ah indexes during the COVID-19 pandemic (February 4 to June 19, 2020) on selected Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. As a comparison, the equivalent time period of relative tranquillity is used; February 4 to June 19, 2019.

Morlet’s wavelet method is used in analyzing the volatility levels for both the conventional and Shari’ah indexes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic for the selected ASEAN and GCC countries.

This study has several findings; first, the markets in the ASEAN region appear to be more volatile during the pandemic than in the GCC region. Second, most of the Shari’ah indexes were more volatile during the COVID-19 pandemic than their conventional counterparts. Nevertheless, the GCC index pairs appear to show more similarities between both the Shari’ah and conventional index.

The findings from this study indicate that investors, government, regulators and all other stakeholders should stay vigilant during a pandemic or health threat period as it has become a pertinent source of volatility spillovers. As such, investors should devise optimal asset allocation strategies, portfolio diversification and portfolio rebalancing measures, taking into consideration not only financial adversity but also public health gravity as a potential source of turbulent markets.

This study uses the wavelet method to examine the volatility level of both the Shari’ah and conventional indexes during the COVID-19 pandemic and its equivalent time frame in 2019. It has further added to the Islamic literature by comparing the volatility between selected ASEAN and GCC countries. The wavelet method is most appropriate for short-duration studies as it captures both the time and frequency domains of the time-series behavior.