KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday bagged the Best Islamic Stock Exchange Award 2021 by Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA), an international platform that recognises excellence in banking and finance in the Islamic world.
“PSX has a robust platform for providing Shariah-compliant products including dedicated Islamic indices, Shariah-compliant equities and debt instruments,” according to a statement issued in this regard.
The stock market has listed Modarabas and Islamic commercial banks as well as products such as Islamic Mutual Funds and an ETF. It boasts of the total listed capital of Shariah-compliant companies of Rs770 Billion as of June 30, 2021.
Meanwhile, PSX Chairperson Dr Shamshad Akhtar said, “It is an immense achievement for Pakistan Stock Exchange to have won the Best Islamic Stock Exchange Award 2021.”
“Islamic equity and debt products form a large portion of the demand in international capital markets,” she said, adding that the stock market winning this accolade shows that it was a premium platform for investing of Islamic capital market products.
Sharing plans for the stock market, she said, “We intend to build on Islamic finance business at PSX, and ensure furthering PSX’s regulatory, operational, technological standards and products in providing diversified Islamic products and facilitating Shariah-compliant equity and debt listings.”
On the occasion, PSX Managing Director Farrukh H Khan said, “This award is a recognition not just for Pakistan Stock Exchange’s standing in the world of Islamic finance but for Pakistan as well.”
“Both PSX and Pakistan have been working for many years to introduce Islamic modes of financing, in both the banking and capital markets. This has filled a real need of the financial sector customers,” he maintained.
