IslamicFinance.de

The Bahrain’s stock exchange has plans to launch a financing tool and real estate investment trusts. The range of Islamic investment products will include a novel equity-based murabaha financing tool and Islamic real estate investment trusts. It is seeking to attract regional funds from bigger markets such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates; Islamic financial products are a major part of the strategy. The exchange aims to host trading of sukuk (Islamic bonds), which at present is mostly done over the counter, said Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa.

After a suspension that lasted almost eight months, trading in shares of Gulf Finance House (GFH) has finally resumed. GFH is traded on the Bahrain Stock Exchange, the Kuwait Stock Exchange and the Dubai Financial Market.
GFH was hit very hard by the financial crisis. It made large profits in previous years by collecting premiums on investments in multibillion-dollar property projects and private-equity deals, but that income disappeared when investors retreated in 2008 and 2009.