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 November 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.

“Governments of Islamic countries want us to cooperate in capital markets to facilitate cross-border trading,” Erkan said in an interview in Abu Dhabi. “One of the easiest and most efficient ways to improve trading is to build indexes and exchanged-traded funds.”   »»» ArabianBusiness.com

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