One of the freshest exchange traded fund(ETF) companies has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the first ETF in the United States that is based on an Islamic index.
Javelin Investment Management is a newly formed investment company and has filed to launch the JETS (Javelin Exchange Traded Shares) Dow Jones Islamic Market International Index Fund – a first of its kind and from a new provider struggling to get a foothold within the industry, reports Eric Rosenbaum for Index Universe.
The strategy to get notice in this industry includes a fine line of staying away from asset classes already dominated by heavyweight providers and not falling into the narrow niche trap. This new ETF will be a first-mover, which is a plus. It is also aimed at a good-sized market: various estimates place the size of Islamic investment around $700 billion.
Islamic stocks may have had an advantage in this market due to their exclusion of financial service stocks, but can be sensitive to energy and the recent drop-off in that sector.
There are six Islamic indexes globally, three of which are managed by Barclay’s London-based iShares family. The funds have less than $100 million in assets combined, but that only includes up to the end of the first quarter of this year.
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