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The purpose of this study is to identify selected information from the prospectus that might signal the initial public offering (IPO) offer price.

This study uses cross-sectional data for a 14-year period from 2000 to 2014 in examining hypotheses relating to Shariah-compliant status, institutional investors, underwriter ranking and shareholder retention, with respect to their associations with the offer price of the IPOs. Further, this study uses ordinary least squares (OLS) for all models, including the models for both subsamples of Shariah- and non-Shariah-compliant IPOs. As for robustness, this study incorporates the quantile regression and quadratic model.

The results tend to provide support for the argument that firms with Shariah-compliant status reflect lower uncertainty and project better signalling of quality due to greater scrutiny by the government and thus are able to offer IPOs at higher prices. Similarly, firms with a higher proportion of shareholder retention indicate lower risks as insiders forego their options to diversify their portfolio, and hence could price their IPOs higher. Finally, the involvement of institutional investors and higher underwriter ranking could be used by firms to disregard information asymmetry, and therefore, the issuer might have to discount the IPO offer price.

This study focuses solely on information in the prospectus that should not be disregarded by the investors in valuing the appropriateness of the IPO offer price. This study contributes in terms of providing a better understanding of the determinant factors of the IPO offer price of the firms which are Shariah-compliant.

This paper provides evidence for the determinants of the IPO offer price in a fixed pricing mechanism for both Shariah-and non-Shariah-compliant IPOs.

This study aims to investigate Malaysian stock market efficiency from the view of Sharīʿah-compliant and conventional stocks based on the effectiveness of technical trading strategies.

This study uses unconventional trading strategies that mix buy recommendations of Bursa Malaysia analysts with sell signals generated from 10 selected technical trading strategies (simple moving average, moving average envelopes, Bollinger Bands, momentum, commodity channel index, relative strength index, stochastic, Williams percentage range, moving average convergence divergence oscillator and shooting star) that are detected using ChartNexus. The period from 1 January 2013 until 31 December 2015 produces a total sample consisting of 1,265 buy recommendations of 125 Sharīʿah-compliant stocks and 400 buy recommendations of conventional stocks. The study period is extended until 31 March 2016 to provide an ample time for detecting the sell signal especially for buy recommendations that are released towards the end of 2015.

The resulting Jensen’s alpha show 8 out of 10 strategies are effective in generating abnormal returns in Sharīʿah-compliant samples while only 3 out of 10 strategies are effective in conventional samples. Prominent effectiveness of technical trading strategies in Sharīʿah-compliant stocks implies clear inefficiency in that stock market segment as opposed to those of the conventional stocks.

The results based on unconventional trading strategies provide new insights of Malaysian stock market efficiency especially in Sharīʿah-compliant and conventional stocks. The paper provides more robust findings on market efficiency as firms’ equity level data were focussed together with analysts’ buy recommendations from Bursa Malaysia.

Drawing upon underinvestment theory and clientele effect hypothesis, this paper aims to examine the effects of foreign currency (forex) exposure and Shari’ah-compliant status on firms’ financial hedging strategy.

Based on data of 250 nonfinancial firms listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2010 to 2018 (2,250 firm-year observations), the authors test the impact of forex exposure based on a vector of foreign-denominated cash flows (FCF) indicators and firms’ Sharīʿah-compliant status on two proxies of financial hedging decisions, namely, the ratio of the notional value of currency derivatives to total assets and a binomial measure of hedging status. The hedging decision models are estimated using panel logistic regression and system generalized method of moments.

The results indicate significant positive effects of the forex exposure indicators on firms’ propensity to hedge. However, the impact of forex exposure is most prevalent via total FCF. The results also reveal significant positive effects of Sharīʿah-compliant status on firms’ propensity to hedge but its negative impacts on the value of currency derivatives they use. The results suggest that Sharīʿah-compliant firms refrain from engaging in currency derivatives to avoid riba’ and subsequently subdue the clientele effect. However, when the forex exposure reaches higher levels, engagement in currency derivatives becomes a matter of tentative necessity (dharurat).

This study relies exclusively on the disclosure of foreign currency risk and management data in the annual reports of listed companies. Consequently, this limits the sample size to only those nonfinancial listed companies with complete data for the study period. Also, since none of the companies reports using Sharīʿah-compliant derivatives, the authors thus assume that they use derivative instruments that tolerate “riba.”

Given the significance of forex exposure on hedging decisions, the accounting profession must strictly adopt FRS 7 and FRS 139 for all listed firms to avoid market scrutiny and sustain their clientele. The results also call for the Islamic market regulators to include mandatory disclosure of conventional currency derivatives in screening firms for clearly prohibited activities to help enhance the credibility of its Islamic financial market.

Due to difficulty accessing relevant cash flow data, the study is among the few studies that measure forex exposure using FCF and test more proxy indicators. This study is perhaps the first to examine the Shari’ah perspective on currency derivatives in corporate forex risk management.

The purpose of this study is twofold: to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the risk dynamics of stock and bond markets in G7 countries; and to examine if the stock-bond risk dynamics can be linked to government measures to contain the pandemic.

To examine the pandemic impact on the risk dynamics of the bond and stock markets, this study chooses G7 countries for their efficient financial market properties. This study uses standard generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) (1,1) and exponential GARCH (1,1) models to determine the most volatile and sensitive market, most persistent market during the crisis and the leverage effect between stock and bond markets. This study then uses a panel study to investigate whether this volatility in stock and bond markets is affected by the COVID-19 cases and various government responses (fiscal stimulus packages, monetary policy, emergency investment in health care and vaccine investment).

The findings of the study confirm that the bad news of the pandemic is causing higher volatility than good news for all seven stock markets. Canadian stock and bond markets are the most volatile, and Italian bond and stock markets are the most sensitive G7 countries. Japan has shown the highest persistence, and the stock market exhibits higher leverage than the bond market. Fiscal stimulus packages are helping to reduce bond market volatility, but none of these measures are effective in the stock market.

The pandemic is still spreading, and the rate at which it spreads wildly will always pose a limitation to any attempt to examine its full effect.

Investigation of market volatility will help policymakers and market players formulate the best strategies to overcome and exit the crisis and plan post-pandemic solutions. It provides valuable insights for investors to rebalance their portfolios during highly volatile markets while preserving their risk appetite and investment objectives.

The paper provides evidence on the impact of the pandemic-induced crisis and the respective government responses on the volatility of competing capital markets (stock and bond) in countries that are considered most efficient in reflecting news.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether market conditions have an effect on investors’ propensity to herd in an emerging economy’s stock market. Additionally, given the lack of research on Islamic behavioral finance, the authors further investigate if the herding phenomenon is distinct in Islamic versus conventional stocks.

The authors used daily data for the period of 1995–2016 according to the herding behavior model of Chang et al. (2000), which relies on cross-sectional absolute deviation of returns.

Findings reveal the herding behavior of investors among Shariah-compliant during up and down market exits with non-linear relationship to the market return, while for conventional stocks herding behavior does not exist with linear nor nonlinear relationships during the up and down market. Furthermore, for the whole market, herding behavior only exists during upmarket with a nonlinear relationship to the market return. However, this relationship is not significant. Moreover, the results of this study are robust with respect to the effect of the Asian and global financial crisis.

The findings are useful for investors to identify which market conditions are associated with rational and irrational behavior of investors.

Most of the theoretical and empirical studies on herding behavior have focused on developed countries. Only a few studies have paid attention to the herding behavior in Islamic financial markets, particularly in the context of an emerging market such as Malaysia. This study fills this void.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the shariah-compliant status of the firms negatively influences their use of foreign exchange hedging instruments.

This paper uses a logit panel regression on 350 firm-year observations from 70 nonfinancial listed firms over the period from 2010 to 2014. Shariah-compliant companies account for about 84 per cent of the sample firms.

Preliminarily, the results show that none of the samples of the shariah-compliant firms report any use of Islamic hedging instrument, either in the form of wa’d or tawarruq. The results of the study’s logit panel regression contradict the authors’ prediction that the shariah-compliant status negatively influences firms’ decision to hedge. In contrast, shariah-compliant companies are twice as likely as their conventional counterparts in adopting forex hedging.

This study is limited to information disclosed in the items 31, 36 and 37 of financial management policies in the annual report. However, given that shariah-compliant firms must abide by the limit of 5 per cent profits before tax from clearly prohibited activities (including riba’), the need for exclusive disclosure on the adoption of Islamic or conventional hedging appears to be imperative for the viability of the Malaysian Islamic capital market.

In evaluating the shariah compliance of a company, investors (individual or institutional) must look further than just interest-based riba’ in mixed-business companies to ensure that they comply with the 5 per cent maximum requirement on the non-halal business contribution to profit. This is because the finding of this study indicates that shariah-compliant companies are twice as likely to adopt forex hedging, when none of them reports the use of Islamic hedging tools. Investors must therefore give ample allowance to riba’ that can be induced through the use of conventional forex hedging instruments. This is until the security market regulator imposes a requirement on shariah-compliant companies an explicit disclosure of the use of Islamic versus conventional hedging tools, as they had done in the case of Islamic versus conventional debt instruments.

Muslim and socially responsible investors rely on the Shariah-compliant status of the company in ensuring that their wealth grows according to the Shariah principles. To sustain and develop the Islamic capital market which the firms have been relying on for external capital, Shariah-compliant firms and the authority awarding the status are equally responsible for honoring the trust that these investors by ensuring the permissibility (halal) of the business and the conduct of their business.

Conventional forex hedging instruments are criticized for violating as-sarf, a shariah principle, which requires the exchanges of particular assets (gold, silver and currency) to be delivered on the spot, and thereby infusing riba’ al-fadhl. Although Islamic (wa’d- or tawarruq-based) hedging instruments are widely available by Islamic banks in this country since they were introduced by Bank Negara Malaysia in 2010, paradoxically, the authors’ observation indicates that none of the studied firms reports the adoption of these instruments in their annual reports.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the initial return patterns of Malaysian initial public offerings (IPOs) and whether shari'a‐compliant status would alter such patterns.

The effect of shari'a‐compliant status on the patterns of initial return of IPOs is analyzed using a sample of 386 IPOs issued between January 1999 and December 2007.

The preliminary results indicate that over the study period, the initial returns of Malaysian IPOs drop substantially from 94.91 percent reported from the pre‐crisis period of 1990‐1998 to 31.99 percent, a level more comparable to that reported in advanced markets. Since the initial returns do not revert to pre‐crisis levels, the new low IPO underpricing trend is more likely to be associated with the removal of pricing restraints. The results of regression analyses on the full sample, however, suggest that there is no drastic change with respect to factors that drive initial returns in Malaysian IPOs. With regards to shari'a‐compliant status, IPOs of this subsample show similar profiles to those of non‐shari'a counterparts. However, other than demand, the two subsamples are driven by different factors. Initial returns of shari'a‐compliant IPOs are driven by the size and type of offers, whereas those of the non‐shari'a IPOs are driven by risks.

Future studies should re‐examine the issue by taking into consideration the extensiveness of a firm's compliance to shari'a rules and other predictor variables.

This paper is one of the first to examine the effect of shari'a‐compliant status on the performance of IPOs.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the new journal and articles in the first issue.

The paper attempts to introduce the journal by answering the two “W” questions – what is Islamic accounting and why Islamic accounting research is important. In doing so, it indirectly highlights the need for a specialist journal like Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research (JIABR) and the potential research areas.

Islamic accounting research is still at the infancy stage compared to Islamic banking and finance. One of the reasons is due to lack of exposure of research conducted in the area at international level, ending up with only a few issues getting attention. Similarly, the lack of a platform where researchers interested in the area could showcase the diverse range of research as well as network and get support on their research hindered the progress of research in this area. Hence, JIABR could be the leading journal in the area of Islamic accounting and business research if all papers related to it are channeled in this specialist journal. In this way, researchers in the areas of accounting and business would be more aware of the development and contemporary issues to take the research forward.

This paper is useful to new readers of the journal around the world who are interested but have limited knowledge in the area, and also those who wish to submit to the journal, in that it highlights some potential areas for research.