Market tension rises over IMF doubt
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Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 19, 2009 10:13
ISTANBUL - The rise of Turkey’s benchmark stock index slowed yesterday, after business daily Referans reported the government may delay a new accord with the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, until later in the year.
Istanbul Stock Exchange’s benchmark IMKB-100 index closed yesterday at 33,666 points, increasing this year’s advance to 24.6 percent.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is waiting to see if a recovery in international markets will remove the need for IMF support, Erdal Sağlam, the Ankara representative of Referans wrote yesterday, citing unidentified officials in Ankara and Washington.
The benchmark index started the day in the red, but gained rapidly in the afternoon session, ending the day with a rise of 181 points.
"The stock market is [irked]because of rumors and news reports in the market about problems with IMF talks," Bloomberg quoted Orhan Canlı, a trader at İş Investment in Istanbul, as saying. "The delay is raising tension."
The government may wait until August or September, when Istanbul will host a meeting of the IMF and World Bank, Referans said. Turkey and the IMFare negotiating a lending deal as the country’s economy slips into the first recession since a destructive crisis in 2001.
The IMF is asking for caps on spending and revenue-raising measures in order to ensure Turkey’s borrowing needs decline. The government argues that more spending is required to stimulate the slowing economy.
"Media reports É suggest that the government may delay closing a deal with the IMF until much later in the year - perhaps as late as July; more or less as we had suspected," said Timothy Ash, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland, in an investor note yesterday. "But the market has still been pricing in a deal a matter of weeks away."
"We retain the belief that the government will sign a new standby," said an İş Investment note. "But as the bargain lasts longer under an environment in which the global markets start to deteriorate again, a sharp wave of selling might occur in Turkish markets."
The İş Investment note also said the Turkish currency might depreciate in the short term. Garanti shares gained yesterday, increasing 1.4 percent. Akbank rose 1.63 percent and closed the day at 6.25 liras.
Park Elektrik, a mining company, jumped for a second day, rising 3.7 percent to 2.25 liras. Park Elektrik is rising ahead of the acquisition of fellow group company Ceytaş Madencilik on May 22, said Selim Kunter, an analyst at Ekspres Invest.
Aygaz, a distributor of liquefied propane gas, gained 3.2 percent, to an eight-month high of 2.62 liras. The company yesterday reported a profit of 14.7 million liras ($9.4 million) for the first quarter, from a loss of 33.8 million liras in the year-earlier period.
Beşiktaş, an Istanbul-based football club, surged 16.8 percent to 8.7 liras, heading for its longest streak of gains since February 2002, on bets it will win the Turkish Super League championship this season.Bond prices slipped, pushing the average benchmark yield eight basis points higher to 12.12 percent, an index of securities tracked by ABN Amro Holding showed.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is waiting to see if a recovery in international markets will remove the need for IMF support, Erdal Sağlam, the Ankara representative of Referans wrote yesterday, citing unidentified officials in Ankara and Washington.
The benchmark index started the day in the red, but gained rapidly in the afternoon session, ending the day with a rise of 181 points.
"The stock market is [irked]because of rumors and news reports in the market about problems with IMF talks," Bloomberg quoted Orhan Canlı, a trader at İş Investment in Istanbul, as saying. "The delay is raising tension."
The government may wait until August or September, when Istanbul will host a meeting of the IMF and World Bank, Referans said. Turkey and the IMFare negotiating a lending deal as the country’s economy slips into the first recession since a destructive crisis in 2001.
The IMF is asking for caps on spending and revenue-raising measures in order to ensure Turkey’s borrowing needs decline. The government argues that more spending is required to stimulate the slowing economy.
"Media reports É suggest that the government may delay closing a deal with the IMF until much later in the year - perhaps as late as July; more or less as we had suspected," said Timothy Ash, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland, in an investor note yesterday. "But the market has still been pricing in a deal a matter of weeks away."
"We retain the belief that the government will sign a new standby," said an İş Investment note. "But as the bargain lasts longer under an environment in which the global markets start to deteriorate again, a sharp wave of selling might occur in Turkish markets."
The İş Investment note also said the Turkish currency might depreciate in the short term. Garanti shares gained yesterday, increasing 1.4 percent. Akbank rose 1.63 percent and closed the day at 6.25 liras.
Park Elektrik, a mining company, jumped for a second day, rising 3.7 percent to 2.25 liras. Park Elektrik is rising ahead of the acquisition of fellow group company Ceytaş Madencilik on May 22, said Selim Kunter, an analyst at Ekspres Invest.
Aygaz, a distributor of liquefied propane gas, gained 3.2 percent, to an eight-month high of 2.62 liras. The company yesterday reported a profit of 14.7 million liras ($9.4 million) for the first quarter, from a loss of 33.8 million liras in the year-earlier period.
Beşiktaş, an Istanbul-based football club, surged 16.8 percent to 8.7 liras, heading for its longest streak of gains since February 2002, on bets it will win the Turkish Super League championship this season.Bond prices slipped, pushing the average benchmark yield eight basis points higher to 12.12 percent, an index of securities tracked by ABN Amro Holding showed.