Turkish stocks down at year-end close

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the last business day of 2020 down 0.22% to close at 1,476.72 points on Thursday.

Starting the day at 1,481.24 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index decreased 3.18 points from Wednesday's close of 1,479.91, an all-time high.

On Friday, the stock market will be closed due to New Year's holiday.

During the day, the index hovered between 1,470.28 and 1,484.37 points.

As of daily close, the total market value of the benchmark index was around one trillion Turkish liras ($148 billion), with a daily trading volume of 27.8 billion Turkish liras ($3.7 billion).

The highest trade volumes were recorded by fertilizer producer Gubretas, private lender Garanti and glass manufacturer Sise Cam.

On Thursday, 44 stocks on the BIST 100 rose, 48 declined, and the remaining were flat compared with the previous close.

Stocks of IS GMYO saw the highest increase, up 9.96%, while shares of a carton producer Kartonsan showed the worst performance with a 4.45% drop.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, the price of one ounce of gold was around $1,892.90 by market close, versus $1,878.00 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil was around $51.11 per barrel as of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) on Thursday.

The Turkish lira has outperformed other emerging market currencies since last month, gaining some 15% against the US dollar.

After reaching a low of 8.5832 on Nov. 6, the Turkish lira today saw 7.3461 per dollar, its highest level since Sept. 10.

Analysts said the emphasis on fighting inflation and financial stability by Turkey's new economic team has boosted interest in Turkish lira assets.

Cuneyt Paksoy, economist and financial analyst at Anadolu Agency, said that the tightening and simplification steps taken by the Turkish Central Bank as well as normalization steps by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) gave the Turkish lira added momentum.

"The Central Bank increased the [benchmark] policy rate to 17% in successive steps, and the country risk premium was pulled back from 550-600 basis points to 300-350," he explained.

Stating that the Central Bank's foreign exchange purchases for reserve purposes may limit the margin of downside movements, Paksoy said: "Unless the US imposes tough sanctions on Turkey, new rises are not expected."