Impact of various islamic equity markets on sharia (islamic) compliant equity invesments in emerging markets

Islamic finance has been growing globally particularly after the subprime crisis of 2007-2008.This paper is an attempt to ask two questions on Islamic finance:(i)Assuming that an investor is bounded by Shariah compliant equity investment in the emerging markets, which equity market is more influencial in affecting the returns? (ii) Equally, if an investor is limited to Shariah compliant equity investment in the emerging markets, which index can be used as the most referred benchmark for his/her return? The standard time series techniques have been applied for the analysis. Our findings tend to indicate the following answers corresponding to the above two questions.(i)For a Shariah compliant equity investor in the emerging markets, Islamic equity markets of Asia Pacific and overall market (represented by DJIAP and DJIM as the proxy) are evidenced to be more influencial in affecting returns.(ii) Among the Islamic equity markets of US, Japan, Euro zone and Asia Pacific, the Japanese market (represented by DJIJAP as the proxy) is evidenced to be the main referenced market for the Shariah compliant investors who invest in the emerging markets