DUBAI: Dubai Financial Market (DFM) has launched the Dubai Financial Market Shari’a Index-DFMSI, the most recent initiative from DFM aiming to reinforce its momentous journey as the first Shari’a-compliant exchange globally since 2007.
The DFM has been actively contributing in the joint efforts to fortify Dubai’s leading position as capital of Islamic economy globally. The first index of its kind in the UAE takes DFM’s efforts to attract more Islamic investments a step forward by providing market participants with a benchmark to measure the performance of Shari’a-compliant listed securities and to take their investment decisions accordingly.
The Index is accessible through DFM’s website, mobile phone applications as well as any other data dissemination platform run by the DFM or by licensed market data providers. The initial market capitalization of the Shari’a Index has been set as per stock prices on 31 December 2009 with 1000 points as the base point of the Index.
Shares included in the DFM Shari’a Index are designated in line with the quarterly updated list of Shari’a-compliant companies prepared by the DFM Fatwa and Shari’a Supervisory Board, which revises the list based on the quarterly financial results of listed companies. The Fatwa and Shari’a Supervisory Board implements the revision in line with DFM’s Standard for Issuing Acquiring and Trading of Shares issued in 2008 and its amendments issued in 2018
Currently, the DFM Shari’a Index consists of 40 listed companies including 30UAE companies and 10 dually-listed companies and the weightage of any company is capped at 10%.
Essa Kazim, Chairman of DFM said, “As the first Shari’a -compliant exchange globally since 2007, we are pleased to launch this new initiative that underlines DFM’s active role in the joint efforts to fortify Dubai’s leading position as capital of Islamic economy globally in line with the initiative of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. The Index enables Sharra-complaint investors and international institutions a trajectory of the historical and current performance of DFM’s Shari’a-complaint shares compared to other Islamic or conventional indices at the local, regional and international levels.”
“We believe that the DFM Dubai Financial Market Shari’a Index-DFMSI Index is a strong push to our efforts to further attract Islamic investments, considering the growing demand from investors across the world for ethical investments that focus on companies adhering to the Islamic Dubai Financial Market Shari’a Index-DFMSI or to any other general values related to sustainability and environment protection,” Essa Kazim added.