Foreigners continue buying Turkish assets

ANKARA

Foreign investors have continued to add Turkish assets to their portfolios, the latest data from the country’s Central Bank showed on Feb. 7.

Non-resident investors bought $270 million worth of Turkish equities in the week ending Feb. 1, according to the data.

That came on top of the inflows of $322 million and another $322mn into the equities market in the previous two weeks.

In the week ending Jan. 18, foreigners purchased $712 million worth of Turkish equities.

Market value of non-resident investors’ holdings of Turkish equities increased to $35.26 billion as of Feb. 1 from $34.11 billion on Jan. 25.

The market value of non-residents’ holdings of Turkish equities stood at $29.6 billion at the end of 2018.

Non-residents also bought $106 million worth of government debt securities, reversing the trend observed in the previous five weeks.

The Central Bank data showed that foreigners sold a total of $906 million worth of government debt securities between Dec. 28 and Jan. 25.

The bank reported that the market value of foreign investors’ holdings of government debt securities was $19.25 billion as of Feb. 1, up from $18.33 billion on Jan. 25.

Separately, the bank announced that its gross FX reserves increased by $3.6 billion on a weekly basis to reach $77.06 billion as of Feb. 1.

Its gold reserves also increased to $20.6 billion from $19.9 billion on Jan. 25.