Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the behavior of the stock market returns in the different days of the week and different months of the year in accordance with the Islamic calendar. Further, the study estimates the risk-adjusted returns to test the performance of the indices during the Ramadan and non-Ramadan days. Finally, the study investigates the impact of Ramadan on the returns and the volatility of the stock market indices in India.

Initially, the study applies the Ordinary Least Square method to test the day-of-the-week and the month-of-the-year effect of the common and Shariah indices. Next, the study employs the risk-adjusted measurement to examine the underperformance and over-performance of the indices for both the periods. Finally, the study estimates the GARCH (1,1) and GJR-GARCH (1,1) models to observe the impact of Ramadan on the returns and the volatility of the Shariah indices in India.

The study finds that an average return of the indices during the Ramadan days are higher than non-Ramadan days. Further, the average returns of the Shariah indices are significantly higher on Wednesday than other days of the week. In addition, the highest and significant mean returns and mean risk-adjusted returns of the indices during the Ramadan days are observed. Finally, the study finds an evidence of the Ramadan effect on the returns and volatility of the indices in India.

The study observes evidence that the Ramadan effect influences the Shariah indices, but not the common indices in the stock market of the non-Muslim countries. It indicates that the Ramadan creates the positive mood and emotions in the investors buying and selling activities. The study suggests that investors can buy the shares before Ramadan period and sell them during the Ramadan days to get an abnormal return in the emerging markets.

Muslim’s hope that the holy month of Ramadan will create something more valuable for them. Through fasting and good actions, they can get rewarded twice than they normally can achieve. With this motivation, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the holy month of Ramadan effect on the returns and volatility of the Shariah index in India.

Using the ordinary least square methods, this paper examines the impact of Ramadan effect on the returns of the Shariah index in India. This paper further investigates the impact of the holy month of Ramadan effect on the volatility of the Shariah index by applying GARCH-modified models. This paper categorizes the Ramadan days into three parts, namely God’s Mercy, God’s Forgiveness and Emancipation from hellfire to examine the relationship between the Ramadan effect and the returns and volatility of the Shariah index in India.

The results show that the returns during the month of Ramadan as a whole are statistically significant. The results further motivate that its last ten days have high influences than other days over the period. Finally, the study examines the Ramadan effect on volatility by applying GARCH modified models and finds an evidence of Ramadan effect during the first ten days of Ramadan month.

The positive impact of Ramadan increases on the days associated with higher worship intensity. The study provides an important information to the ethical investors to invest in the Shariah stocks during Ramadan days. This information is very useful for the investors to get an abnormal return during the Ramadan days.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative predictive abilities of current earnings (and its components) and cash flows for next period cash flows in case of Shariah-compliant companies in India.

The study uses the list of CRISIL NSE Index (CNX) Nifty Shariah Index companies as its sample for a period of 10 years for conducting the analysis. The study utilizes the cash flow prediction models to examine the relative predictive abilities of current earnings (and its components) and cash flows for next period cash flows.

The study report that contrary to Financial Accounting Standard Board assertion, current cash flows have superior predictive ability of next period cash flows than current aggregate earnings in case of Shariah-compliant companies in India. The results further show that there are no gains from decomposing earnings into accruals and cash flows in predicting future cash flows. There is no increase in explanatory power (measured by adjusted R2) when aggregate earnings are disaggregated into accruals and cash flows to predict next period cash flows.

The empirical findings of the study will enable the Shariah compliant investors to understand the role of current earnings (and its components) and cash flows in predicting next period cash flows in case of Shariah-compliant companies in India.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first study which examines the relative predictive abilities of current earnings (and its components) and cash flows for next period cash flows in case of Shariah-compliant companies in India.

This paper aims to undertake a comprehensive comparative analysis of Sharīʿah-compliant equity investments (SCEIs) and their non-Sharīʿah counterparts, in India, conditioning for investment horizon and market volatility. Indirectly, it also investigates for time varying performance of SCEIs, and explicitly analyses the unsystematic risk and related adequacy of returns.

Testing for statistical significance of differences in risks and returns; analysing portfolio performance using conventional metrics, information ratio, and Jensen's Alpha; Estimating returns due to stock selection and market timing using Fama’s Net Selectivity and Treynor and Mazuy’s Models.

SCEIs in India do not significantly differ in their total risks and returns compared to their conventional counterparts. While their risk is lower in the monthly and quarterly investment horizons, their Jensen’s Alphas are positive only in the annual investment horizons. These findings hold, when market volatility is low. Market timing wipes out the superior returns that exist due to stock selection in SCEIs.

Being Sharīʿah-compliant is beneficial only in longer investment horizons. Asset selection, not co-movement with the market, is key to excess returns to compensate for risks due to inadequate diversification. However, only cautious market timing can conserve them.

Though investors are not better-off in choosing ethical investments, they are not worse-off either. Being Sharīʿah-compliant is rewarding during less volatile markets.

This paper extends international literature on SCEIs, with evidence on the impact of investment horizon and market volatility on their returns and risks. Further, this paper is also a comprehensive analysis of Indian SCEIs, broadening the empirical evidence on a significant, non-Islamic and emerging market.

This paper aims to develop a ranking methodology for the companies included in the Islamic indices in Turkey. Thus, this paper simplifies the decision-making process for investors with Islamic sensitivities to stock market investment when constructing their investment portfolio.

This paper uses a case study of 20 companies listed on Borsa Istanbul, drawing data from their 2017, 2018 and 2019 financial reports. These companies are scored and ranked according to their compatibility with the screening criteria used by Ziraat Katilim index in Turkey. In addition, this paper uses the quantitative screening process to calculate the ranking scores of these companies.

The findings show that some companies are highly compatible with the screening criteria, with ranking scores close to 100 points. However, some companies satisfied the criteria on the margin. This may not be a desirable result for some investors.

Only 20 companies are included in the analysis. Since the conventional accounting system is used in Turkey, it was difficult to get exact information about the companies’ Sharīʿah compatibility from the financial results.

The findings assist investors to determine which company is ethically more responsible than others within the Islamic framework. There are also implications for the companies in question, index providers and Sharīʿah scholars.

The findings aim to simplify the decision-making process of investors who have Islamic sensitivities to stock exchange market investment when they constitute their portfolio.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is one of the first attempts to develop a ranking methodology for Sharīʿah-screened stocks in Turkey even though Sharīʿah screening has been on the agenda since the late 1990s. This paper also compares 11 indices based on their screening criteria.

The paper aims to resolve the ongoing issue of asset pricing in indexed based investments, primarily in Sukuks. It is to be done by modeling the returns of S&P MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Sukuk index (SPS), S&P MENA bonds indices (SPM) and Dow Jones MENA (DJM) equity index using system equations and to find out cointegration among them.

In this study, daily data of stated regional market indices, from the month July 2013 to June 2017, are analyzed using the cointegration model and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation.

Findings revealed through cointegration test that indices are found to be not integrated in the long run; however, in short run, DJM is having one way relation with other two indices, and SPM and SPS are having unidirectional relation. The results of the GMM model show that SPS is significant in influencing SPM and vice-versa, and rest other variables are insignificant in influencing each other systems equations.

There is ample work available on various Islamic indices, but there is no study found on the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Equity, MENA Bond and MENA Sukuk indices together.

This study aims to empirically compare the performance of Islamic indices vis-à-vis to their conventional counterparts in India.

The performance of the Islamic and selected conventional indices is evaluated using various risk-adjusted performance measures such as Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, M-square (M²) ratio, information ratio, capital asset pricing model (CAPM), Fama-French three-factor model and Carhart four-factor model in India context. The period of study is from December 2006 to 2018.

The risk-adjusted performance measures based on the Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, information ratio, the M² ratio show that the return of Islamic indices provides slightly superior performance. However, performance investigated using CAPM, Fama-French and Carhart benchmarks produce a statistically insignificant differences in return of the Islamic and conventional benchmarks.

The Sharīʿah-compliant indices can provide a viable, ethical and alternative investment avenue for faith-based investors as it will not make them worse off in comparison to the conventional benchmarks. This also offers opportunity to conventional investors for portfolio diversification. The promotion of faith-based investment can serve as a tool for financial inclusion to attract a huge segment of Indian population in the formal financial system. The findings of the study suffer from the limitation of small sample size and empirical methods used.

This study contributes to the literature on the comparative performance of Islamic and conventional indices in general and emerging markets, in particular, using most recent data and covering a relatively long span of time. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study examining the performance of Islamic indices, using multiple Islamic indices and various risk-adjusted measures in the Indian context.

The purpose of this paper is to bring the attention of Muslim world toward uniformity of Shariah principles. The paper also presents different opinions of experts toward standardization. Selection criteria of four different Islamic market indices are compared. Some points like Halal business and debt ratio are common, while others are different.

The qualitative research method has been used in this research work and various types of documents and research articles were analyzed. The authors analyzed the data of four Islamic stock markets in the world. First, they write all the screening criteria of every Islamic stock market for selecting a company for their stock market. Afterwards, they make a table that presents the comparison of screening criteria of all Islamic market indices.

A Shariah Board of Islamic Market approves any company as being Islamic Shariah-compliant based on certain criteria. Different Islamic market indices use their own criteria for selecting the company. Every Islamic market index has its own rules and regulations of the Shariah Board. Sometimes these rules are contradictory with each other; for example, if KMI-30 Islamic index is not selecting one particular company due to higher debt ratio but Dow Jones Islamic market index selects that company because that company meets the criteria of the Dow Jones Islamic market index.

The main limitation is that there is no approach to regulators of the different Islamic market indices around the globe.

If Islamic indices work on the suggestions provided in this paper, standardized criteria will be available to all indices and, consequently, confidence of the investors and operational issues will be resolved. Investment will be increased.

The belief of non-Muslims will be strong that Islamic laws are the same any where. A shift from conventional finance to Islamic Finance will be sped up.

This research work is original and first attempt on the topic of standardization of screening criteria of Islamic stock markets around the globe.

This paper aims to examine the effects of oil price uncertainty on corporate investment of Islamic stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study uses a panel data set that covers 398 listed Islamic stocks from seven major Asia Pacific countries over the period of five years from 2017 to 2021, yielding 1,990 observations. Specifically, this paper investigates the said association by combining the real options theory regarding investment and the panel data-based econometric method that captures the dynamic relationship, the generalized method of moments estimators.

The findings show that the relationship between the oil price volatility and corporate investment of Islamic stocks is significant and nonlinear in nature, suggesting the presence of both the growth options and the waiting options. Overall, the results reveal that corporate investment of Islamic stocks is hindered during the unprecedented corona crash, when oil price increases at exponential rates.

The findings suggest that considering the information caused by unprecedented events like the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial for investment decisions of Islamic stocks. Therefore, policymakers and regulators should incorporate the impact of oil price uncertainties caused by unprecedented events like the COVID-19 pandemic on firm’s investment expansion and diversification strategies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the relationship between the investment of Islamic stocks and the oil price uncertainty under compound options theory in top Asian oil-importing countries.

This paper examines the effect of the holy month of Ramadan on the returns and conditional volatility of cryptocurrency markets.

The closing prices of six cryptocurrencies have been considered. The study employs different classical tests for checking if the efficiency behaviour is similar during Ramadan celebration days and non-Ramadan days. Besides, dummy variable regression technique for assessing this anomaly on returns and volatilities has been applied.

Although no significant effect on returns and volatility for Litecoin has been found, the results provide evidence about the existence of the Ramadan effects in cryptocurrency markets. The results of the mean equations show the existence of Ramadan effect for Ethereum, Ripple, Stellar and BinanceCoin for all considered models. Significant effect on Bitcoin returns is found with an autoregressive model of order 1. The results of conditional volatility show Ramadan effect on volatility is not detected.

First, a new contribution in the incipient study of cryptocurrency analysis. Second, a comprehensive review of recently published empirical articles about Ramadan effect on traditional assets has been carried out. Third, unlike most of the papers focussed on the study of Bitcoin, this study has been extended to six cryptocurrencies. Ramadan effect have not been analysed in cryptomarkets yet. This study come to fill this gap and analyses Ramadan effect, previously documented for traditional assets, in particular, stock index from Muslim countries, but not yet analysed in the cryptocurrency markets.