Islamic Index investors in the money

The Financial Times has some surprising news for investors in the stock market today. Despite the relatively few companies on the sharia-compliant UK Islamic Index, the list has outperformed the FTSE 100 over the last 12 months. Usual stock market bankers such as tobacco and defence companies are excluded (as are those with business activities related to pork, alcohol, gambling and financial services) but high exposure to the energy and mining sectors appears to be paying off. As the index's faq points out, it has a lot of similarities with ethical funds - and you don't even need to be a Muslim to invest.