Sharia-based Stocks: Do Muslim Investors Prefer Metaphysical or Materialistic Returns?

Faith-based investment instruments, such as sharia-based stocks, have developed rapidly in recent years. When investing in these instruments, investors tend to emphasize materialistic returns as measured with monetary returns and metaphysical returns, such as blessings from God (Allah) because of their observance of Islamic teachings. In this respect, it is important to investigate the role of individuals’ religiosity in investment decision making in Sharia-based financial products. An equally crucial research question is whether individuals’ religiosity levels affect expected material returns as measured by the tolerable negative returns of sharia-based stocks. This study relies on a survey method that involves university students in Java island who actively invest through the Investment Gallery of their faculties/ universities as the sample. Data is then analysed with the multinomial regression analysis technique. The results show that individuals who are more observant of their religious teachings are more likely to fully invest their funds in Sharia-based stocks and exhibit greater tolerance towards the negative returns of Sharia-based stocks. The findings indicate that Muslim investors who are more observant of Islamic teachings emphasize metaphysical returns from their investment decisions.