Muslim-Majority Nations Plan Stock Index to Spur Trade: Islamic Finance

Bloomberg reports:

The organization representing the world’s biggest grouping of Muslim-majority nations is seeking to attract more overseas investment by offering the first Shariah-compliant stock index from its 57 members.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference based in Jeddah hired Standard & Poor’s to start an index of about 50 of the most-traded stocks in the first quarter of 2011, Huseyin Erkan, the Istanbul Stock Exchange’s chief executive officer and coordinator of the initiative, said on Nov. 8. The index, which will track listed equities that comply with Islam’s ban on alcohol, gaming and tobacco, aims to target exchange-traded funds, he said.