Turkish lira rises against the US dollar for a second day
Turkey’s lira rose against the dollar for a second day as gains in emerging-market equities stoked demand for higher-yielding assets. The lira was the best-performing emerging-market currency after Iceland’s krona and South Africa’s rand as the Turkish ISE National 100 Index of equities tracked gains in stock markets around the world. The lira also was buoyed after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he is preparing legislation that would block a lawsuit to ban his ruling Justice and Development Party. «We’re seeing across the bar better sentiment,” said Shihin Vallee, emerging-market currency strategist in London at BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank. «The market got excessively bearish» on the lira and «there won’t be any negative news on the political side in the near-term.» The currency rose as much as 2.3 percent, the most since March 14, to 1.2816 per dollar, and was at 1.2925 by 6.03 p.m. in Istanbul. The lira may exceed 1.30 per dollar in the medium-term, according to Vallee. Turkey’s ISE National 100 Index rose for a second day, rising 2 percent. Turkey’s Constitutional Court this week voted to hear a case to ban Erdogan and his party from politics on charges of undermining secularism. Erdogan, who denies the chief prosecutor’s charge, said legislation was being prepared to block the lawsuit, NTV television reported. (Bloomberg)
