A Comparative Study on the Behavior of Islamic and Conventional Stocks in the Presence of Oil Price, Gold Price, and Financial Risk Factors: Evidence from Dow Jones Indices

Abstract

The research aims to analyze the influence of the gold price, oil price and financial risk on Islamic and conventional securities on comparative as well as on individual bases. Monthly prices of oil and gold are extracted from the websites of West Texas Intermediate and World Gold Council, whereas time series data for financial risk is derived from the Volatility Index of S&P 500.  All these variables are found to be cointegrated at the first difference with both the Dow Jones indices, which means that gold, oil and financial risk have long term association with Islamic and conventional stocks. In order to find the direction and magnitude, this study applied the Newey-West HAC test, which also handles autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity issues in the time series data. The findings of the study suggest that gold prices are positively associated whereas oil prices and financial risk are negatively associated with both types of securities. Though the direction of the nexus is similar for Islamic and conventional stocks, but the magnitude differs especially in case of oil and financial risk. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that there is no diversification prospect between conventional and Islamic stocks under the influence of oil prices, financial risk, and gold prices.