Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at November 20th, 2008

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said an accord with the International Monetary Fund was close and Turkey may receive some $20 billion to $40 billion in loans, Radikal newspaper reported on Thursday.

This signals an important shift in Erdogan’s stance towards the Washington-based fund as he previously slammed the IMF for demanding tougher cost cutting measures. The AKP government had desired to be the administration that ended the financial support of the IMF ahead of the local elections in 2009.

Turkey’s $10 billion loan accord with the IMF expired in May and business leaders have been calling for a fresh agreement to boost the flagging economy. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 18th, 2008

Turkish stocks plunged to their lowest levels in more than three years on Tuesday and the lira currency continued to fall against the U.S. dollar, as the prospects of a deep global recession intensified, battering markets worldwide.

The benchmark Istanbul Stock Exchange index closed 3.2 percent down in morning trade at 23,279 points, the lowest level since early 2005. The index also lost 5.42 percent on Monday.

Stocks traded in-line however with the MSCI emerging stocks index, which weakened 3.3 percent.

“Nothing seems to stop the bearish outlook in the near term,” Deniz Can Yucel, head of equity research at Yatirim Finansman Securities told Reuters. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 18th, 2008

Turkey’s Central Bank will probably leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at more than five times the rate in the euro zone this week to defend the Turkish lira, or YTL, from the impact of the global economic crisis.

Central Bank likely to keep key rate same The Bank will keep the overnight borrowing rate at 16.75 percent according to all 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The Bank will announce its decision at 7 p.m. tomorrow. Turkey is holding the cost of borrowing high, even as developing economies reduce their rates, to preserve the value of the lira and protect companies that have foreign currency debts. The YTL, has fallen 21 percent against the dollar since the start of October. The global financial crisis means Turkish monetary policy must remain “cautious,” the Bank said Oct. 31. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 13th, 2008

An estimate by German Deutsche Bank on Turkey’s possible need for international financial help — denied by Turkish politicians and leading to allegations by Turkish columnists of a German plot to weaken Turkey — came not from Germany, but from a British research division of Deutsche Bank.

When confronted with the reaction in the Turkish press to the Deutsche Bank report — which had always been cited referring to a Washington Post editorial saying, “Turkey alone could need $90 billion [in help from the International Monetary fund], Deutsche Bank calculates” — a spokesman of the financial institute said he would not comment on conclusions drawn by Turkish columnists. Yet, he underlined that there was no German on the team responsible for the report, as can be seen from the list of authors included in the report. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 13th, 2008

The recent gloomy economic atmosphere continued to hover over financial markets in Turkey and around the world on Wednesday, sending stock and commodity prices even further down.

The İstanbul Stock Exchange benchmark index (İMKB-100) was down by 2.11 percent at the end of the day’s trading, closing at 25,342.50 points. Things were not bright in the currency market, either. The dollar increased to 1.64 against the lira from its previous level of 1.61 on Tuesday.

European shares dipped by midday in choppy trade, as weakness in the banking sector offset gains in defensive pharmacy and telecoms stocks amid continuing worries about a deep recession. Investors were taking their cue from Wall Street futures, which swung to negative from slightly positive after teetering back and forth earlier in the day. At 13:10 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.2 percent at 881.59 points after rising as high as 899.14 and dipping as low as 877.03. The index has fallen around 41 percent this year, hit by the credit crisis and the resulting economic slowdown. Germany’s DAX fell 1.33 percent, and France’s CAC-40 dropped 0.86 percent while London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.68 percent (more…)

Posted by meb at November 13th, 2008

The Turkish lira, or YTL, dropped to a two-week low against the dollar as east European stocks slipped and concern mounted that the global economic slowdown is spreading.

YTL fell the most among emerging-market currencies in the region as the greenback was trading at around YTL 1.64 at 4:52 p.m. yesterday. The euro was trading at around YTL 2.05, representing a gain of 5 percent since Nov. 3. The U.S. dollar gained more than 5.7 percent against the Turkish currency in the same period.

The currency was also hurt after Russia’s central bank on Tuesday widened the ruble’s trading band to stem a drain on foreign capital. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 11th, 2008

The Turkish lira fell four percent against the dollar and Istanbul stocks closed some three percent lower on Tuesday as fears of looming recession and the fading appetite for risk pressured emerging markets.

The lira closed at 1.5845, and sold even lower at 1.6050 in Wednesday-dated trade, after closing on Monday at 1.5230.

The main stock exchange index .XU100 closed down 3.4 percent at 25,889 points, slightly outperforming the MSCI index of emerging stocks which by 1500 GMT traded down 4.7 percent. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 7th, 2008

Turkcell, Turkey’s leading GSM operator, increased its net profits in the third quarter by 39.7 percent to YTL 728 million over same period last year.

Turkcell’s revenue grew by 10.2 percent in the third quarter, amounting to YTL 2.46 billion, the company announced yesterday at a news conference.

The company’s consolidated monthly revenue per customer was YTL 20.6, a 4 percent increase over last year’s third quarter.

Turkcell CEO Süreyya Ciliv said the company grew significantly despite ongoing financial turmoil in global markets and increasingly tougher competition. Ciliv noted that the company, which has 36.3 million customers in Turkey and a total of 60 million worldwide, will continue to seek both domestic and foreign investments despite the crisis. (more…)