Sanctuary in the Midst of Crisis? A Look into Shariah Indices using Multivariate GARCH DCC

Islamic Finance has evolved over the past few decades, and stands at over a trilliondollars today. At the foundations of Islamic finance lay the concept of risk sharing, and the purest forms of it in the modern day finance is equity investments. The evidence of Islamic investors pursing equity investments in reality is thin. Multitude of reasons are attributed to this low participation, mainly revolving around lack of empirical proof of Islamic investments being a reliable and steady return alternative. This study is an attempt to study the volatilities and correlations with the conventional global equity indices utilizing Multivariate GARCH Dynamic Conditional Correlations (MGARCH DCC) method. The findings provide an interesting angleto our study, where there is a significant downwards trend in the correlations during the crisis era. This provides substance to the argument that Islamic investors would experience lesser downside in economic crisis. This study further dwells into the linkage of Islamic indices with global financial indices to study if financial sector exclusion from Islamic indices benefits theinvestors. The findings are positive, with lower correlations and that to reducing in the recent global crisis. Islamic finances core philosophy is equity based investments and this study is a humble attempt to empirically substantiate its benefits

Sanctuary in the Midst of Crisis? a Look Into Shariah Indices Using Multivariate GARCH DCC

Islamic Finance has evolved over the past few decades, and stands at over a trilliondollars today. At the foundations of Islamic finance lay the concept of risk sharing, and the purest forms of it in the modern day finance is equity investments. The evidence of Islamic investors pursing equity investments in reality is thin. Multitude of reasons are attributed to this low participation, mainly revolving around lack of empirical proof of Islamic investments being a reliable and steady return alternative. This study is an attempt to study the volatilities and correlations with the conventional global equity indices utilizing Multivariate GARCH Dynamic Conditional Correlations (MGARCH DCC) method. The findings provide an interesting angleto our study, where there is a significant downwards trend in the correlations during the crisis era. This provides substance to the argument that Islamic investors would experience lesser downside in economic crisis. This study further dwells into the linkage of Islamic indices with global financial indices to study if financial sector exclusion from Islamic indices benefits theinvestors. The findings are positive, with lower correlations and that to reducing in the recent global crisis. Islamic finances core philosophy is equity based investments and this study is a humble attempt to empirically substantiate its benefits

UNDERSTANDING ASIAN EMERGING STOCK MARKETS

We use a three-step process employing multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis tostudy time-varying changes in the volatility and efficiency of Asian emerging equitymarkets. Our findings suggest that, in emerging markets, long-term stability andefficiency are linked to market development and liberalization. Our findings furthersuggest that financial crises have a negative impact on the efficiency of emergingmarkets but only in the short term.We use a three-step process employing multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis tostudy time-varying changes in the volatility and efficiency of Asian emerging equitymarkets. Our findings suggest that, in emerging markets, long-term stability andefficiency are linked to market development and liberalization. Our findings furthersuggest that financial crises have a negative impact on the efficiency of emergingmarkets but only in the short term

Tripartite analysis across business cycles in Turkey: A multi-timescale inquiry of efficiency, volatility and integration

AbstractIn the current era of globalization, deregulation and liberalization of markets have led to financial integration amongst developing and developed countries. The sudden massive inflow of capital into developing country's stock markets begs the question of whether or not the markets are sufficiently efficient to handle the increasing integration of markets. Furthermore, the relationship between the integration and efficiency of stock markets tends to be of greater importance during economic downturns. Taking Turkey as a case study owing to its economic growth and importance in two successful blocs, i.e. the EU and the OIC, we attempt to analyse the linkages between stock market efficiency and integration during the different phases of the economy. The findings of our study provide an interesting insight into the relative improvement in volatility, efficiency and integration across business cycles, in a multi time scale analysis

Remote Sensing of the Glacial Environment Influenced by Climate Change

Remote sensing-based observations prove to be critical for the monitoring and assessment of cryosphere in the Himalayan region, where routine data collection in mountainous regions is often hampered by highly inaccessible terrain and harsh climatic conditions. The glacierized region of High Asia is also facing the effects of climate change in the form of rapid melting of glacial ice, creation of new lakes, and expansion of the existing ones, which eventually result in hazardous glacial floods downstream. Multisensor remote sensing (RS) data, e.g., MODIS, Landsat-7 & 8, and SPOT-5 XS, coupled with Google Earth and digital elevation model (DEM) data were used to investigate the snow/glacier resources and their dynamics in the Karakoram–Himalaya basins adopting variable image interpretation and modeling techniques. Minimum numbers of large-sized glaciers were identified in the Himalaya range, which points toward higher rates of glacial ice melting in this range. On the contrary, the presence of relatively higher numbers of medium- to large-sized glaciers in the Karakoram range provides an evidence of favorable climate conditions for the glaciers\u27 existence at higher altitudes. A significant gain in snow cover was observed in Hunza basin during the 2001–2011 period, which may feed high-altitude zone resulting in net expansion of the snow cover and ice mass gain in the Karakoram. The integrated use of RS and geographical information systems (GIS) techniques with sparse in situ data is found to be helpful in analyzing the glacial environment in the context of changing climate in the high-altitude Himalayan region

DNA ploidy analyses in 218 consecutive Pakistani breast cancer patients: does it add anything?

An analysis was made to evaluate the significance of DNA ploidy in the biology and prognosis of breast carcinoma. This was done by estimating the correlation of DNA ploidy with other established prognostic markers of breast cancer, namely tumor size, tumor grade, lymph node metastasis and S-phase fraction. From 1995 up to year 2000 ploidy analysis was performed on 218 consecutive cases of infiltrating breast carcinoma by flow cytometry using formalin fixed paraffin embedded material. From the laboratory record, data regarding other pathological variables was retrieved. No correlation could be found between DNA ploidy and tumor grade, nor could there be found a correlation with tumor size. For lymph node metastasis there was a significant difference between the proportion of aneuploids and diploids having metastasis in more than 4 lymph nodes. However, no significant difference was found in axillary lymph node positive and negative groups when number of positive lymph nodes was not taken into account. The mean value of S-phase fraction for the aneuploids and the diploids was also insignificantly different. In conclusion DNA ploidy alone did not add much to predict tumor behaviour in terms of known pathologic variables

The Incidence of Alternaria Species Associated with Infected Sesamum indicum L. Seeds from Fields of the Punjab, Pakistan

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The contribution of Islamic banking to Indonesia’s economic growth: the evidence from the vector error correction and variance decomposition methods

Purpose: The aim of this study is to empirically understand whether Islamic banks have a positive relationship to economic growth in Indonesia. Methodology: This study examines the causal relationship amongst several selected variables: real GDP (RY), total deposit (TD), the change in the Consumer Price Index as an inflation proxy (INF), and the ratio of total imports and exports to nominal GDP (OE). In order to accomplish the research objectives of this study, a time series quarterly data spanning from the first quarter of 2003 to the last quarter of 2011 comprising of 36 data points has been used to perform an effective analysis.Findings: The inference deduced here is twofold; First Islamic banks in Indonesia are still unable to contribute significantly to Indonesia’s economic growth. Second, the relationship between Islamic banks and economic growth in Indonesia is positively but weakly correlated. Research Limitations: For this time series research, the researcher is limited by the small amount of data (2003.Q1 to 2011.Q4)

How does crisis affect efficiency? An empirical study of East Asian markets

Much research has been undertaken in the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) over the preceding two decades. With Asian countries emerging as a global powerhouse in terms of regional economics, the interest in their stock markets has picked up recently. Asian markets traditionally comprised of many emerging markets are generally assumed to be more volatile and speculative in nature. Based on this crux, we focus specifically on the response of these markets efficiency to major crisis. In recent years, the Asian markets have experienced a phenomenal boom in attracting foreign capital inflow, with Singapore evolving into a global financial hub in terms of banking and financial services. Scepticism and cautious nature raises the question of whether these stock markets are efficient enough for further investment and development. Our study is unique in nature, as we focus on the efficiency of these market in response to crisis periods, comparing it with their pre-crisis period, both in shorter term of 1 year as well as longer term of 5 years post and pre crisis period. Taking Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea owing to their economic and financial development, we use MF-DFA to derive efficiency measure for comparative analysis with its own past. The findings put forth a notion of generally a deteriorating and negative impact of the Asian financial crisis, while the sub-prime crisis impact varies based on the economic structure of the economies. The findings concur with the mainstream literature and similar studies for other countries and region