Active Global Equity Shariah ETF Report | September 2025

Shariah Active ETF Key Takeaways

With the arrival of September, we have entered the month that over the past century has historically featured the weakest stock market performance. October may get the glory with the 1929 and 1987 crashes but since 1928, September is the only month that has seen more declines than gains. Considering the old market adage to “sell in May and go away” it’s hard to square September’s weakness. Nonetheless, it exists and with everything we describe below, there are reasons to be cautious.

In August, the Saturna Al Kawthar Global Focused Equity UCITS ETF returned 3.37%, easily outpacing comparable Islamic indexes, as well as conventional global benchmarks. Stock selection was positive across all sectors, led by healthcare where each of our investments provided a positive return. New portfolio entrant Smith & Nephew, a British medical specialty firm, was the strongest performer, followed by a rebounding Novo Nordisk. Good selection combined with significant exposure made healthcare the largest contributor to Fund returns during July.
Communications stocks were the second largest contributor on good returns from Alphabet and Nintendo. Consumer discretionary stocks were the best performers with Lowe’s and AutoZone both appreciating by double digits, but our relatively small exposure to the sector capped the contribution to Fund returns.

We traditionally have had a light exposure to materials stocks, but we added US/German industrial gas company Linde to the portfolio earlier this year and have boosted the exposure by adding CRH. Originally Irish, CRH, now domiciled in the US, is one of the largest suppliers of construction materials such as aggregate and asphalt and the largest road builder in the US. It has performed strongly since purchase.
Rather remarkably, given the past few years, technology detracted from returns for both the Fund and the benchmark, although our selections outperformed. Double-digit returns from Texas Instruments and Apple helped but were insufficient to offset the weaker performance of Intuit, SAP and Taiwan Semi.

Please note that all performance figures are showing net data. Past performance is not indicative of future performance and when you invest in ETFs your capital is at risk.

When was the last time things were certain?
“Uncertain” certainly stands as one of the most overused words in the stock market prognosticator lexicon. As our approach focuses on identifying companies we believe can outperform over the long term rather than tactically “playing” the market, we typically do not prognosticate on overall market outlook.

Nonetheless, we agree that uncertainty rules the day. Most of the uncertainty stems from aggressive pushing of legal boundaries demonstrated by the Trump administration. Last month we described the skeptical take of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals concerning the validity of Trump’s tariff “emergencies” and speculated that the court would rule against the government but stay the ruling to provide a chance for appeal to the Supreme Court. Indeed, that’s exactly what has happened, with the ruling stayed until October 14th. We do not have any confidence in predicting the outcome at SCOTUS.

Meanwhile, the government has weaponised mortgage applications against those it views as opposed to the administration, with the latest victim being a sitting Federal Reserve Governor. We have been surprised by the market’s sanguine reaction to the attempted firing of a Fed governor and hope it stems from confidence that the attempt will fail. If it succeeds, and the Fed’s ability to resist rate cut pressure evaporates at a time when the latest annualised core inflation figure stands at 2.9%, the highest since February and far above the 2% target, we can only assume markets would not take it well.

Shariah Active ETF Performance Table
As of 31/08/2025

AMAL (Fund)
1M2.99%
3M-0.21%
6M6.42%
YTD11.54%
12M16.65%
3Y59.20%
Since Inception (28/09/2020)55.12%


Please note that all performance figures are showing net data. Source: Bloomberg / HANetf. Data as of 31.08.2026

Performance before inception is based on back-tested data. Backtesting is the process of evaluating an investment strategy by applying it to historical data to simulate what the performance of such a strategy would have been. Back-tested data does not represent actual performance and should not be interpreted as an indication of actual or future performance. Past performance for the index is in USD. Past performance is not an indicator for future results and should not be the sole factor of consideration when selecting a product. Investors should read the prospectus of the Issuer (“Prospectus”) before investing and should refer to the section of the Prospectus entitled ‘Risk Factors’ for further details of risks associated with an investment in this product. When you invest in ETFs your capital is at risk.

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