Dubai Financial Market launches new Shariah Index, eyes more Islamic investments

Dubai’s main stock exchange, the Dubai Financial Market has launched a new Islamic index to measure the performance of Shariah-compliant listed securities.

The Dubai Financial Market Shari’a Index-DFMSI market capitalisation is set as per stock prices on December 31, 2009, with 1,000 points as the base point, DFM said in a statement on Monday (October 28).

DFM hopes the new benchmark will attract more Islamic investments.

“We believe that the DFM Shari’a Index is a strong push to our efforts to further attract Islamic investments, considering the growing demand from investors around the world for ethical investments that focus on companies adhering to the Islamic Shari’a or to any other general values related to sustainability and environment protection,” said DFM chairperson Essa Kazim.

DFM’s new Islamic Index currently consists of 40 listed companies, including 30 UAE companies and 10 dually-listed companies, according to DFM.

The weightage of any company is capped at 10%.

The universe of Shariah-compliant companies included in the index will be updated on a quarterly basis.

All classes of Shariah-compliant ordinary shares on the DFM are eligible for inclusion. Financial instruments such as sukuk are excluded. 

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