Almaty, January 15th.- The international trading system ITS and the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) mark the one-year anniversary of the ITS Shariah ETF (ITSS) – the first exchange-traded fund compliant with Islamic finance principles in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
In 2025, the ITS Shariah ETF, which tracks ITS’s own ITS Shariah Index, delivered a 25.5% total return, including dividend payments from index constituents.
Results were presented this morning by the company’s CEO, Chingiz Kanapyanov, during an event in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Over the same period, the ITS Shariah Index, which comprises a portfolio of 30 large-cap U.S. companies selected through Shariah screening, rose 23.6%. For comparison, the S&P 500 increased 16.4% over the same period.
Demand for Shariah-compliant investment instruments continues to expand globally among both Muslim and non-Muslim investors. The approach is based on rules that restrict interest-based financing (riba), excessive uncertainty and speculation (gharar), and exposure to certain prohibited business activities.
“Investors who prefer Islamic instruments are becoming a noticeable force in global markets. Today, there are more than 4,500 Shariah indexes worldwide, and ITSS’s success is a vivid example of how this trend is …