Critical Finance Review > Vol 11 > Issue 3-4

Clientele Effect in Sovereign Bonds: Evidence From Islamic Sukuk Bonds in Malaysia

Minxia Chen, INSEAD, Singapore, minxia.chen@insead.edu , Joseph Cherian, NUS Business School, Singapore, bizjc@nus.edu.sg , Ziyun Li, Singapore Exchange Ltd., Singapore, ziyun.li@u.nus.edu , Yuping Shao, Société Générale, Hong Kong, China, david.shao@sgcib.com , Marti G. Subrahmanyam, New York University, Stern School of Business, USA and NYU Shanghai, msubrahm@stern.nyu.edu
 
Suggested Citation
Minxia Chen, Joseph Cherian, Ziyun Li, Yuping Shao and Marti G. Subrahmanyam (2022), "Clientele Effect in Sovereign Bonds: Evidence From Islamic Sukuk Bonds in Malaysia", Critical Finance Review: Vol. 11: No. 3-4, pp 677-745. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/104.00000124

Publication Date: 10 Aug 2022
© 2022 Minxia Chen, Joseph Cherian, Ziyun Li, Yuping Shao and Marti G. Subrahmanyam
 
Subjects
 
Keywords
G11G12G18
Clientele effectLiquidityCredit riskSovereign SukukIslamic sovereign bondConventional sovereign bondRamadanSovereign repo market
 

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In this article:
1. Introduction 
2. Literature Review 
3. Data and Summary Statistics 
4. Empirical Results 
5. Demand-Side Proxies for Sovereign Sukuk 
6. Special Repo Rates and Yield Spreads 
7. Conclusion 
Appendices 
>References 

Abstract

The demand for Malaysian Islamic bonds (Sukuk), in the largest and most active Islamic market in the world, comes from two sources: conventional and Islamic investors, with the latter group holding only Islamic bonds by mandate. Surprisingly, Malaysian Islamic sovereign bonds have a 4.8 bps higher yield than their conventional counterparts, ceteris paribus. We attribute this spread to foreign institutional investors participating actively in the conventional market, but not as much in the Islamic market. Using transaction-level data, we document four pieces of evidence that point towards clientele effects, particularly for foreign investors, which affect the yield spread.

DOI:10.1561/104.00000124