IslamicFinance.de

Parsoli Corporation Ltd has informed Bombay Stock Exchange that Mr. Uto Baader, and Ms. Christine Schiedermaier, have resigned as directors of the Company and accordingly they ceased to be directors w.e.f. March 25, 2009.

In order to attract Muslim investors to stock markets, Reliance Capital Services has launched in Kanpur the 'Imaan Investment Plan'.

India has an increasing number of Islamic mutual funds, most recently joined by Benchmark AMC, a fund house that specialises in index-based investing, has recently closed subscriptions for a Shariah-based fund. A similar offering from Taurus Mutual Fund, Taurus Ethical Fund, is currently open for subscription. The Taurus Mutual Fund notices that about 50 % applicants subscribers are non Muslims.

The Islamic funds have since inception outperformed the broader indexes. Nevertheless in current market conditions it is difficult to sell an equity scheme. Benchmark AMC is said to have placed somewhere between Rs 1-1.5 crore.

Zafar and Uves Sareshwala, promoters of broking firm Parsoli Corporation, were debarred by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) after they were found to have fraudulently transferred shares of genuine investors to their own accounts.

India's Taurus Asset Management will launch a sharia-compliant equity fund monitored by India's Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions, an independent Sharia board, to monitor its investments.

Shailesh Menon reported in Economic Times on 29 January that Benchmark Asset Management is launching a Shariah-compliant open-ended exchange traded fund. The scheme opens for subscription on February 4 and closes on February 25.

The portfolio management services division of HSBC Asset Management has launched the actively managed, open-ended HSBC Amanah India Shariah Portfolio. The portfolio will be benchmarked against the Dow Jones Islamic Market India Index and the BSE 500.

CEO of HSBC Asset Management is Mr Vikramaaditya.