Islamic Capital Markets: Developments and Challenges

The prohibition of interest and speculation in Islam, illegalize almost all conventional capital market instruments, activities and fundamental capital market theories. Equities are subject to severe restrictions, conventional debt instruments and derivatives are completely prohibited. It appears that an Islamic capital market can not exist. In this book the author Nangi Sardehi scrutinizes the Islamic instruments and products and gives an overview of the products, which includes Islamic equity funds, derivatives and debt instruments. The latter one known as Sukuk is gaining an exceptional growth and acceptance even in non-Islamic countries. Despite these developments, this book also emphasizes the challenges of the emerging Islamic capital markets. Beside the market illiquidity and the diversification issue, the main problem is the inconsistency among the Islamic schools. This book provides basic knowledge for investors, who want to participate in the profitable emerging Islamic capital markets. Moreover, for Islamic investors it is an opportunity to invest their money in Shariah-compliant products.