Investments in line with syariah
BEYOND the banking industry, Malaysia has maintained its position in the global sukuk arena as at end-2016, with 41.1 per cent of total sukuk issuance (compared with 48 per cent as at end-2015)
In a statement, the ratings agency RAM Ratings highlighted, “Despite a slight decline and the weaker ringgit, sukuk originated from Malaysia still summed up to US$29.9 billion as at end-2016 (US$30.4 billion as at end-2015).
“Greater sukuk issuance in noncore markets also augmented the global sukuk base to US$72.9 billion at year-end (US$63.4 billion as at end-2015) – with issues from Turkey (US$5 billion), Pakistan (US$4.8 billion) and Bangladesh (US$1.1 billion) featuring prominently.
“A total of US$18.2 billion of global sukuk was issued in the fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16), bringing the full-year issuance to US$72.9 billion as at end-December,” it said.
“Last year, global sukuk issuance exceeded RAM’s projection of US$55 billion to US$65 billion,” said RAM’s head of Islamic Finance Ruslena Ramli.
As for investments on the bourse, Bursa Malayia Bhd (Bursa Malaysia) had recently launched a new platform to cater to the growing demand of syariahcompliant stocks and syariah investments.
The Bursa Malaysia-i is the world’s first end-to-end integrated Islamic securities exchange platform that offers investors the choice to invest and trade syariahcompliant products via a syariahcompliant platform.
Bursa Malaysia-i incorporates the full range of Shariahcompliant exchange-related services including listing, trading, clearing, settlement and depository services.
“The launching of Bursa Malaysia-i is a culmination of Bursa Malaysia’s longstanding commitment to making Malaysia a comprehensive Islamic investing hub that offers various Islamic financial market instruments. Continuous effort and support from various stakeholders such as Islamic Participating Organisations (Islamic POs), Regulators, Public Listed Companies, Investment Banks, syariah Advisers and Islamic Fund Managers are essential to further develop and mainstream the Bursa Malaysia syariahcompliant platform,” Minister of Finance II Datuk Johari said during the launch of the platform.