January sees strong demand for Turkish shares

By Fatih Erkan Dogan

ANKARA (AA) - Foreigners bought shares worth of $816 million in the first month of 2017, the strongest performance of last the 10 months, data from Borsa Istanbul revealed on Tuesday.

This is in line with the performance of the BIST 100 benchmark index as it surged 10.44 percent based on a Turkish lira basis and 3.25 percent on a U.S. dollar basis.

Experts believe Turkish shares -- being cheap on a U.S. dollar basis compared to peers -- spurred demand amid uncertainty over American economic policies in Donald Trump’s presidency.

Easing expectations of rate hikes from the Fed in March and June are also thought to have contributed.

Demand for Turkish shares was mostly focused on banking, suggesting investors seeking to profit from the country’s solid banking sector.

The shares foreign investors most heavily invested in this January were in Garanti Bank, with a net purchase worth $146.5 million.

Halkbank shares were second, with net purchases worth $88.6 million.

These were followed by Turkish Airlines, Is Bank and VakifBank with $86.4 million, $59.8 million and $46.8 million respectively.