Understanding the co-movement among asset returns is a critical issue in finance, as investors can minimize risk through diversification. International investors seek alternative asset classes to diversify their portfolio. Therefore, it would be meaningful to investigate whether sukuk (Islamic bond) offer any advantages in terms of global diversification. In this context, we examined the volatilities and correlations of sovereign bond indexes in developed countries, such as the US, Canada, Germany, the UK, Australia, and Japan, and the Thomson Reuters BPA Malaysia Sukuk Index, using wavelet coherence and multivariate-GARCH analyses. The data cover the period January 2010-

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Purpose Market links (and price discovery) between financial assets and lead–lag relationships are topics of interest for financial economists, financial managers and analysts. The lead–lag relationship analysis should consider both short and long-term investors. From a portfolio diversification perspective, the first type of investor is generally more interested in determining the co-movement of financial assets at higher frequencies, which are short-run fluctuations, while the latter concentrates on the relationship at lower frequencies, or long-run fluctuations. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach For this study, a technique was employed known as the wavelet approach, which has recently been imported to finance from engineering sciences to study the co-movement dynamics between global sukuk and bond markets. Data cover the period from January 2010 to December 2015. Findings The results indicate that: there is no unidirectional causality from developed market bond indices to Malaysia and Dow Jones indices, which is promising for fixed-income investors of a developed market; and in relation to emerging markets, the Malaysian sukuk market has a bidirectional causality with Indonesia, Malaysia, India and South Korea bond indices but not China bond indices, while in terms of the Dow Jones sukuk index, there is no unidirectional causality between the listed emerging markets and the sukuk index except Indonesia’s market during the sample period. Research limitations/implications This analysis provides evidence regarding the timely and appropriate measure of correlation changes and the behaviour of sukuk and bond indices globally, which is beneficial to the management of sukuk and bond portfolios. Originality/value The evidence hitherto unexplored, which was produced by the application of a wavelet cross-correlation amongst the selected sukuk and bond indices, provides robust and useful information for international financial analysts as well as long and short-term investors.

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Purpose Sukuk is an innovative financial instrument with a flexible structure based on Islamic financial contracts, unlike a bond which is based on the structure of a loan imposed with interest. With the notion that sukuk differs considerably from the conventional bonds in terms of risks related to investment, this study aims to examine whether the sukuk market is different from conventional bond markets based on the value-at-risk (VaR) approach. Design/methodology/approach The VaR of a portfolio consists of sukuk and bond indices and is undertaken to determine whether there is any reduction in the VaR amount through the inclusion of the sukuk index in the portfolio. The analysis is undertaken based on the developed and emerging market bond and sukuk indices from January 2010 to December 2015. Findings This paper examines whether the VaR of sukuk market differs from conventional bond markets by using fundamental techniques. It was observed that the VaR amount of sukuk indices is comparatively much lower than the VaR of bond indices in all the cases. Including the sukuk index with each bond index can reduce the VaR of the portfolio by around 30 to 50 per cent for all the developed and emerging market bond indices. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to covering six years of data. Nonetheless, it is able to provide findings which are believed to be useful for the market players. Practical implications This study unveils attractive opportunities in terms of diversification benefits of sukuk indices for international fixed-income portfolios. Originality/value The VaR method is a useful risk management tool. This study uses this method to emphasise the significant reduction of risks and diversification benefits that sukuk investment could offer by including it in the investment portfolio.