Sukuk is becoming more important in the Gulf Cooperation Council’s fixed-income market, including Qatar, representing almost half of the regional banks’ issuance in 2011 and 2012. Market analysts see an upward trend in issuance from banks in Qatar on the back of strong domestic credit growth, which they anticipate will continue.
There was a sharp rebound in the Gulf banks’ activity in debt capital markets in 2012 as they took the opportunity to issue long-term debt at healthy prices under favorable market conditions. The sukuk segment is becoming more active as conventional banks are increasingly tapping into sharia-compliant products to diversify their funding bases, a research note issued by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) said………………………………………..Full Article: Source