Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Shariah highway!

Some issues ago, B&E had presented the potential that Shariah compliant investment options and vehicles had for Indian investors. Now comes the creditable news of companies actually firming up their offerings based on such markets. For beginners, Shariah – the Islamic canonical law, based on teachings of the Quran – is a part of every Muslim’s cultural, social and behavioural identity, ergo its inclusion becomes imperative for any firm prospecting Islamic market. As a number of brokerages and fund houses mull schemes on Shariah lines, most positively, 11 Indian firms (out of a total of 71 companies short-listed) have been selected by the newly launched S&P Pan Asia Shariah Index. The list includes behemoths like TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Satyam, Bharti & others. A peek to the list reveals that IT companies, followed by telecom services and energy, account for 35%, 17%, and 15% respectively, of the entire index.

“S&Ps approach is to create meaningful, product-based indices that give Islamic investors exposure to the same headline markets that conventional investors have enjoyed for years,” commented Alka Banerjee, Vice President of Standard & Poor’s Index Services. The new index, which will be monitored on a daily basis to ensure compliance, will enable Islamic investors to benchmark their investments on a regional basis, and give product providers the opportunity to develop structured products tailored to Islamic markets. Where our banks failed, our firms seem to be succeeding...
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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative