Key index gains slightly

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

The U.S. dollar, meanwhile, was trading at around 1.57 Turkish Liras at 5:07 p.m. yesterday, while bond yields fell to the lowest in three years on reports the country plans to reach an International Monetary Fund accord soon and ask for its loan to last three years. Yields on the benchmark government bond fell 34 basis points to 13.33 percent, the lowest level since March 2006, according to an index of securities tracked by ABN Amro Holding.

"Everybody sees a three-year IMF loan agreement as positive as it erases the question marks hanging on the external financing need," Bloomberg quoted Sevgi Aytekin, head of foreign-currency trading at Alternatifbank in Istanbul, as saying. "The lira has further room to strengthen," BNP Paribas strategists wrote in a note yesterday.