Istanbul stock exchange reaches its seventh all-time high in nine days
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s main stock index set its seventh record high in nine sessions on Friday as it tracked gains in share prices in emerging market heavyweight Brazil. The Istanbul index closed up 1.9 percent at 44,465.7 points while the lira also strengthened to 1.3355 against the dollar on the interbank market from 1.3372 at Thursday’s close. «In particular the Brazilian stock market rose, we are tied to this and the purchases continue,» Alan Investment analyst Gulizar Ozdemir Turk said. Turkey often tracks Brazil because of its emerging markets benchmark status. The Bovespa index of the Sao Paolo Stock Exchange closed 2.9 percent higher on Thursday. «Cash continues to come in… (On Thursday,) Brazil and the United States closed well and also there is a rising trend (in Turkey). There are positive expectations of the financial sector,» Zeynel Abidin Balci, head of research at Acar Menkul said. The share market has been buoyed in recent weeks by optimism over Turkey’s economic prospects and a belief that US interest rates may have peaked, despite concerns over high global oil prices. Trading volumes on the overall Istanbul stock market were strong, at 2.09 billion lira ($1.56 billion). Turkish bonds also traded higher on Friday, with the yield on the benchmark Sept. 5, 2007, bond slipping to 13.47 percent from 13.56 percent a day earlier – showing investors see less risk in Turkish assets.
