Islamic indices not immune to turmoil

With trillions of dollars being shed from stock markets worldwide across all sectors in the first few weeks of 2008, it is not surprising to find that the benchmark indexes of Islamic markets and sectors are also taking a tumble.

The picture couldn't be more different from last year when Islamic indexes were showing impressive annual advances, often ahead of their conventional counterparts.

What is clear today, however, is that market participants seeking to invest in a Sharia-compliant manner are by no means immune to the effects of bearish sentiment brought on by fears of a global slowdown.

For example, save one, all of the Dow Jones Islamic market indexes found themselves firmly in negative territory as of Wednesday. Only the Dow Jones Islamic Market Kuwait index managed to stay in the positive with a gain of 5.7 per cent on a year to date basis.

The Dow Jones Islamic market family of 60 regional, country and industry indexes is based on the publicly-traded stocks of companies worldwide that exclude operating in alcohol, tobacco, pork-related products as well as fin-ancial services, defence or weapons and entertainment. In addition, companies with high debt and interest bearing elements are also excluded. These conditions have in the past tended to mitigate some of the worst impacts of market tribulations reflected in conventional indexes. Not so this time round.

The market turmoil of the start of 2008 has carried over into the Islamic indexes with a vengeance. Even the new growth markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China saw the Dow Jones Islamic Market BRIC Index 18.24 per cent into negative territory.

Big losers

The biggest losers on a year-to-date basis are the Dow Jones Islamic Market Turkey (-23.4 per cent); DJIM China Offshore (-20.86 per cent); DJIM Taiwan (-16.32 per cent); DJIM Philippines (-16.12 per cent); DJIM Hong Kong (-16.1 per cent); DJIM Europe Titans 25 (-16.02 per cent). Even the DJIM Sustainability index is down 13.96 per cent. Interestingly, however, though still in negative territory, the DJIM Dubai Financial Market index was down only 5.71 per cent.

In industry sectors, Islamic indexes often outperform their conventional equivalents but all are very firmly in the negative so far this year. Worst performer was DJIM Oil and Gas (-16.16 per cent). The other losers major losers are: DJIM Utilities (-15.4 per cent); DJIM Technology (-15.09 per cent); DJIM Industrials (-14.67 per cent); and the DJIM Basic Materials (-13.99 per cent).

The coming weeks will test the tolerance for risk of investors worldwide, but one positive of the current volatile markets is the buying opportunity that it presents. In addition, while the US and to some extent Europe is feeling the pinch, there are many other international markets. Keep an eye on those indexes.

- The author is a freelance writer based in Dubai.