From Btimes.com.my: Bursa Malaysia Bhd plans to introduce a fully electronic web-based Syariah commodity trading platform next month.

Its chief executive officer Datuk Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said the Commodity Murabahah House (CMH) is the world’s first fully Syariah compliant commodity trading platform………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: Malaysia’s stock exchange will launch a global murabaha trading platform next month to serve a market worth over $100 billion, amid fierce industry debate over the permissibility of the Islamic funding structure.

The system, which is based on the sharia concepts of murabaha, tawarruq and musawwamah, will involve the sale and purchase of crude palm oil in a series of transactions used as Islamic financing tools………Full Article: Source

From Bernama: Commodity Murabahah House (CMH), the Syariah based commodity trading platform is expected to unlock a vast potential of opportunities for the Islamic financial industry.

Bank Negara Malaysia’s deputy governor Datuk Mohd Razif Abd Kadir said the trading platform will also provide a wider range of new instruments………Full Article: Source

From Arabnews.com: Foreign investors are unlikely to tap into a $10 billion Dubai bond unless officials give details such as whether it has federal backing, raising the prospect the central government may intervene again to support the emirate.

Dubai, one of the seven United Arab Emirates, propelled itself into the spotlight as a tourism hub during a six-year oil-fueled boom, but the downturn rocked its foundations based on excess lending and a transient expatriate population………Full Article: Source

From Business24-7.ae: Bank of London and The Middle East (BLME) yesterday launched Shariah Dollar Income Fund with a seed capital of $50 million (Dh183.5m), said a statement.

The fund, the first and largest Shariah compliant money market fund in Europe, will be managed by Jason Kabel and will be available to institutional and professional investors in the UK, Europe and Middle East………Full Article: Source

From Brokernews.com.au: The Muslim Community Cooperative Australia (MCCA) has stated its ambition to become the country’s first Islamic retail bank.

MCCA chairman Dr. Akhtar Kalam said its ambitions would be hastened as more and more consumers turn to the principles of Islamic Banking & FInance (IBF) as an alternative to the current offers in the marketplace………Full Article: Source

From Bi-me.com: Rasmala Investments Saudi announced today the launch of its Shariah Compliant “Rasmala Saudi Equity Fund”.

The new fund will predominantly invest directly in the Shariah Compliant securities listed on Tadawul. The fund is denominated in Saudi Riyal with a minimum subscription amount of SAR 50,000………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: Malaysian state oil company Petronashas hired Morgan Stanley, CIMB Bank and Citigroup for a global dollar bond issue, including a five-year sukuk and a 10-year conventional debt offering, a source close to the deal said.

It is launching roadshows ahead of the offering with investor meetings in Kuala Lumpur on July 29, in Singapore on July 30, in London on July 31 and in Abu Dhabi and Dubai on August 2………Full Article: Source

From Bernama: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas)’s long-term corporate credit ratings (foreign currency A-; local currency A ) has been affirmed by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) with a stable outlook.

S&P has also affirmed the issue ratings on the senior unsecured bonds issued by Petronas and guaranteed notes issued by Petronas Capital Ltd and guaranteed by Petronas………Full Article: Source

From Gulfnews.com: Bank of Sharjah’s net profit for the first half was Dh258 million, a 32 per cent increase over the corresponding June 2008 figure of Dh195 million.
The profit for the 2009 second quarter was Dh149 million compared to Dh109 million for the first quarter, a 37 per cent increase………Full Article: Source

From Reuters: National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the biggest UAE bank by market value, reported a 9.3-percent decline in quarterly profits on Tuesday, due to a surge in provisions.

NBAD said it had a net profit of 907 million dirhams ($246.9 million) in the second quarter, compared with 1 billion dirhams in the same period last year………Full Article: Source

From Tradearabia.com: Bahrain-based United Gulf Bank, named in a US regulator’s lawsuit over fraudulent trading, on Tuesday posted an 88-per cent drop in quarterly profits on impairment losses and a decline in fees and commissions.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission last week filed a lawsuit against UGB, and Hazem al-Braikan, the head of a large Kuwait firm who was found dead a couple of days later in an apparent suicide………Full Article: Source

From Gulfnews.com: BankMuscat has reported 4.5 per cent increase in its net profit for the first six months of this year.
Oman’s leading financial services provider earned a net profit of 60.4 million Omani riyals (Dh576.88 million) in the six months ended June 30 compared to 57.8 million riyals during the same period last year………Full Article: Source

From Albawaba.com: Capital Intelligence (CI), the international credit rating agency, today announced that it has affirmed Qatar Islamic Bank’s (QIB) long-term foreign currency rating of ‘A’, its short-term foreign currency rating of ‘A2’ and its financial strength rating of ‘A’.
At the same time CI has raised QIB’s support rating to 2 from 3 on the basis of the strength of Qatar´s ‘AA-‘ (AA minus) sovereign rating and in view of the Qatari government’s demonstrated strong support for the country’s banking system. All ratings carry a ‘Stable’ outlook………Full Article: Source

From Business24-7.ae: Al-Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia’s largest lender by market value, booked in the second quarter the highest provisions for loan losses this year amid fears over the solvency of two heavily-indebted Saudi firms.

The Islamic lender booked 421.6 million Saudi riyals ($112.4 million; Dh412.51 million) in provisions for loan losses during the second quarter, according to official data published on Tuesday………Full Article: Source

From Arabnews.com: Although improvement in global business sentiments have boosted optimism, certain factors are impacting business, Rajesh Mirchandani, CEO, Dun and Bradstreet South Asia Middle East Ltd., said.

Releasing Dun & Bradstreet’s Business Optimism Index (BOI) for Saudi Arabia for Q3, 2009, in association with the National Commercial Bank at a press conference, he said: “Rising cost of raw materials and availability of finance have been the leading business concerns for Q3………Full Article: Source

From Zawya.com: ETFs and Islamic finance can work very efficiently. This is especially true in the case of physically-based iShares ETFs where you have a combination of Shari’ah-compliant ETFs that own the underlying securities in the index.
This is a significantly better structure than swap-based ETFs where there can be confusion surrounding the Shari’ah-compliant nature of the swap-based derivative structure………Full Article: Source

From Theyoungturks.com: The mainstream press goes out of its way to portray the Iranian regime as brutal and undemocratic… as if Iran was like China.
Well, it’s not. Iran at least allows political demonstrations whereas China does not. China immediately starts cracking heads as soon as a couple of demonstrators assemble in the streets. In Iran, there has not been a Tiananmen-type crackdown………Full Article: Source

From Kuwaittimes.net: When the Taliban gave Sikhs and Hindus an ultimatum – leave the land of your forefathers or pay “jizya”, an Islamic tax in protection money — Singh packed up and left his native Tirah valley for Peshawar..
Scholars say only a true Islamic government, no one else, can collect jizya and on condition that those who pay feel safe, but Lashkar-e-Islam insisted the tax was proper payment for services rendered………Full Article: Source