Stocks, lira decline after PM storms out

Bloomberg

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The Istanbul Stock Exchange’s benchmark IMKB-100 index fell for a second day, losing as much as 228.62 points to close the day at 25,567.40 in Istanbul on Friday. The lira weakened 0.2 percent to 1.6418 per dollar, extending a loss in January to 6.8 percent, the most since October.

"Underperformance of the main indexes would appear to be due to the likely increase in political flux following Erdoğan’s row with Peres in Davos yesterday," said Stuart Hackett, director of trading at Ekspres Invest in Istanbul Friday. "The Turkish equity cash market is very thin today, having traded only $192 million in the morning session."

Erdoğan walked out of the forum’s panel discussion Thursday in protest after clashing with Peres over Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip. He was attempting to respond to Peres’s defense of the military actions after the session had run over its scheduled time and the moderator tried to cut him off. Erdoğan protested that he was being given less time than Peres, said he would not return to Davos and quickly left the stage.

Erdoğan was received by thousands of flag-waving supporters at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport on his return early Friday. The premier is preparing for local elections March 29. Peres and Erdoğan spoke late Thursday by telephone and "consider the matter closed," according to a statement released by the World Economic Forum.