Shariah funds shine

Most Shariah-compliant benchmarks outperformed their conventional counterparts for the year, S&P Dow Jones has reported.

That was driven by information technology companies—which tend to be overweight in Islamic Indices—gaining 39.4%, beating the overall market by a wide margin. Financials, underrepresented in Islamic indices, experienced some weakness.

This marked a reversal from 2016 where a surge in the financial sector late in the year caused Shariah-compliant benchmarks to lag.