The Long Term Comovement Between Sukuk And Conventional Fixed Income Markets

Abstract

Sukuk markets have made significant progress both in terms of market volumes and international awareness in recent years. These financial products are specially designed for investors who avoid interest gain. On the other hand, it is an ongoing issue in the literature whether these markets are a useful alternative for conventional fixed income investors as well. Our main purpose is to explore sukuk market as an investment alternative for conventional fixed income market investors' points of view. Since the integration of assets is one of the key criteria for portfolio investments, this study investigated the long-term comovements between sukuk and other fixed-income indexes via Johansen and Engle-Granger cointegration technique. To proxy international fixed income portfolio, international bond indexes which are prepared by FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange Group) are employed. Besides, the vector error correction model is also applied to deepen the results. According to the findings, there is a limited causality in the long run between sukuk markets and conventional bond markets. This can make international sukuk assets highly beneficial diversification alternative to conventional bond portfolios. The study aims to contribute to the literature by examining the benefits of sukuk markets as an investment alternative to conventional, wide-range fixed income markets.