May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Islamic bond sales in Asian currencies may jump in the next six months as companies compare borrowing costs and investors become more willing to accept risk, according to the top underwriter of the securities since 2007.

“The supply pipeline looks pretty good and momentum is very strong,” Lee Kok Kwan, CIMB Investment Bank Bhd.’s head of treasury, said in phone interview from Kuala Lumpur. “people are beginning to regain their risk appetite and issuers are looking at dollar credit spreads versus local-currency credit spreads and seeing the local-currency space is much cheaper.”

Sales of Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, plunged to $13.9 billion last year amid the global credit crisis after soaring to a record $31 billion in 2007 as oil earnings boosted Arab wealth. Sales by Asian nations including Singapore and Indonesia are bringing “vitality” to an otherwise dormant market as governments seek to position themselves to win business when volumes recover, Moody’s Investors Service said last month.

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