CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd senior managing director and deputy chief executive officer Mohamad Safri Shahul Hamid said the Islamic capital market has been quite stagnant in the past three months following the in mid-March to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. — Picture by Azneal Ishak
“We are in an unprecedented time and nobody has a crystal ball to predict the future on the depth and length of the Islamic capital destruction brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. “The market has seen an uptick in loan loss provisions in commercial banks and in investment banks, a decline in the number of deals, while the asset management companies have seen withdrawals coming in from unitholders.
However, he noted that after the relaxation of the MCO on May 9, the market saw a flurry of sukuk issuers into the market especially in the ringgit space and even the global space such as in Dubai and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries. On another note, he highlighted that attention should also be given to Indonesia in the Islamic finance market space as “the waking giant” where the next growth is going to come from this part of the world.