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Investor sentiment is an important aspect of behavioural finance, which provides explanation of anomalies to the asset’s intrinsic values. Sentiments can easily affect individual investors. Historically, Australia is regarded as rich in resources but poor in capital, and this motivates the paper to further study and compare the effects of investor sentiment on performance returns. Aggregate and cross-sectional effects, as well as predictive regression analysis to forecast the relationships, while controlling for the macroeconomic variables, are used by employing Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) and trade volume as sentiment proxies. Contrary to some studies with aggregate stock markets, it is discovered that in the short term, investor sentiment poses a positive impact with strong predictive power on the forecast of portfolio returns but not so much in the long run, which supports the classical theories of rational investors. In both Australian and New Zealand markets, the sentiment proxies also cannot predict the returns portfolios with dividends in the long/short portfolio and book-to-market ratio long/short portfolio.

Although there has been extensive research being done in the field of Islamic finance, literature on sukuk are inadequate. This paper intends to present a thematic review of this subject matter. Through a thematic and chronological review, this paper is divided into the following themes; the first two sections are general i.e. we begin with an overview on the structure and nature of a sukuk contract, and the theories that have been adopted in sukuk research. While the remaining sections are separated according to the type of research i.e. a comparison between sukuk and bonds and investors’ perception of sukuk, and the impact of sukuk on economic growth. Besides providing a summary of the main points covered in current literature, this paper also highlight trends and issues on sukuk research and provide insight on limitation of current research as well as suggest future research directions.

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This research's focus is specified to the interlinkages between three concepts, i.e. social cohesion, women's economic empowerment, and mudharabah investments. Instead of microfinancing, this paper explores the possibility of utilizing mudharabah as a tool in uplifting vulnerable societies, especially women and promote social cohesion in the surrounding community. We explore the importance and value that empowering women economically can bring to improving society's cohesiveness and whether mudharabah can be used to achieve this. A case study method was used to highlight existing models used by NGOs to assist vulnerable women. However, existing models are limited to the funds available in the organization and turn; this restricts the aid that the NGO can give out. A mudharabah model would help NGOs outsource funding to individuals and institutions who can contribute capital to women and uplift them from their current economic condition. This paper proposes a two-tier mudharabah structure as an alternative financing model that can be used as a conduit for circulation and distribution of wealth in a society. This structure is financially viable and limits the capital providers' losses to the amount of their contribution.