Istanbul bourse hits another record high

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The main 100 index of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) hit another record high on closing yesterday evening, reaching 74.298.91 points - a 1.7 percent gain on Friday evening.

The closing of yesterday’s morning session also marked another record, at 73,541.48.

A number of analysts said the rise was due to the lower-than-expected inflation rate for October, which was around 6.4 when compared with the same month in 2011.

This followed another piece of positive data, the trade deficit, which was released on Friday. The information revealed that Turkey’s trade gap had shrunk 31 percent in October from the same month last year, to $5.5 billion.

İMKB’s benchmark 100 index had become the second-highest-gaining platform in the world with a 9.2 percent rise in October. The index reached a historic high on Oct. 29 at 71.717 points, surpassing the Nov. 9, 2010 record, after a two-week long climb unaffected by the nearly one-week-long public holiday.
The climb was prompted by rumors that the international rating agency Fitch would increase Turkey to investment level, which duly came through on Nov. 5.