Foreigners start to buy holding shares
Posted by meb at March 19th, 2008
Foreign investors who are active players at the Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB) have begun to change their investment choices, since the beginning of the year, when U.S. subprime mortgage-related recession worries spread and caused fluctuations in global markets.
Foreign investors, who carried out sales worth $922 million in January, the largest net sales of the last eight years at the IMKB, made net purchases worth $150 million in February. Foreign investors, whose net purchases totaled $4.5 billion at the bourse in 2007, withdrew $771 million from the IMKB during the first two months of this year. During this period, foreign investors pulled out of the banking sector, which has been their favorite sector of the past three years, and started to orient themselves toward purchases in the industry sector and holding stocks.
Garanti stock sales
Foreign investors implemented the highest net sales in January at Garanti Bank’s stocks with $180.3 million. Garanti Bank, which gained 338 percent value at the bourse during the last three years, announced that it will not distribute dividends from its 2007 profit. Foreigners who implemented net sales worth $135.3 million at İşbank C and $131.5 million at Akbank, also pulled out of Halkbank and Yapı Kredi during the first two months of the year.
Foreign investors, who preferred net sales also at Acıbadem, Koç Holding, Migros, Koza, TAV, Şişecam and Karsan during the first two months of the year, later on, began to shift toward purchasing holding and industry stocks, which are cheaper and offer high profitability. The basic reason for foreigners pulling away from bank stocks is the expectation that the sector will not measure up to 2007′s success in terms of profitability this year. Besides, the rapid up-trend of sales during the last three years and the uncertainty of the global crisis also played a role in the shift of their tendencies.
Tüpraş top in purchases
Foreigners made net purchases of $44.5 million in Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation (Tüpraş) shares. That has constituted the highest net purchase foreigners implemented during the first two months of this year. It is observed that the purchases continued in the first two weeks of March. Tüpraş improved its performance after being acquired by Koç Group, which operates the largest dealership network in Turkey.
Fertilizer company Bağfas ranked second following Tüpraş stocks in attracting foreign attention during the first two months of the year. Foreigners made net purchases worth $32.8 million at Bağfaş. Particularly, the orders Bağfas received in the recent period hyped up the attention the company received, whose stocks rose by 50 percent since the beginning of the year despite the global crisis.
Foreigners, who made net purchases worth $27.5 million at Turkcell and $26.8 million at Sabancı Holding, also purchased stocks of Arçelik, Anadolu Cam, Bank Asya, Ford Otosan, Tekfen Holding Doğan Holding, Aksigorta, Gübre Fabrikaları, Goldaş, Petrol Ofisi, Hürriyet, İhlas Holding, Anadolu Efes, Tire Kutsan, Alarko Holding and Alkim Kimya.
Foreign investors made purchases worth $15.42 billion at the stock exchange in the first two months of the year. The amount of sales over the period totaled $16.19 billion. Accordingly, the foreigners’ aggregate transactions worth $31.62 billion at the IMKB resulted in sales worth $772.8 million over the period.
Foreigners’ preferences
Stock Sale ($, thousand)
Garanti 180,344
İşbank C 135,307
Akbank 131,549
Acıbadem 95,326
Halkbank 93,064
Yapı Kredi 87,443
Koç Holding 81,146
Vakıfbank 47,903
Migros 36,419
DJ Istanbul 20 20,212
Stock Purchase ($, thousand)
Tüpraş 44,523
Bagfaş 32,832
Turkcell 27,509
Sabancı Holding 26,896
Arçelik 16,097
Anadolu Cam 12,002
Bankasya 9,691
Ford Otosan 9,653
Tekfen Holding 9,442
Doğan Holding 9,369
Source: Turkish Daily News
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