Trading at Borsa Istanbul suspended after sharp drops
ISTANBUL
Trade at Borsa Istanbul was suspended in the afternoon on Dec. 20 after the benchmark BIST 100 dropped nearly 7 percent.
A circuit breaker was activated twice, according to statements from Borsa Istanbul to the Public Disclosure Platform.
The BIST 100 index opened the week at 2,007 points yesterday, down 3.7 percent from the previous close.
The benchmark index dropped sharply by 8.5 percent on Dec. 17 to close the week at 2,084 points, with a daily trading volume of 77 billion Turkish Liras ($4.7 billion).
The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 1.7 trillion liras ($109.6 billion) by market close on Dec. 17.
The lira dropped below 20 against the euro for the first time yesterday. It lost more than 8 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar at around 17.85 in the afternoon.
The total volume of the Turkish Central Bank’s intervention to FX markets in five selling moves in the last month has reached $6 billion, according to media reports.
Meanwhile, Turkish chemical company Kimteks decided to postpone its initial public offering at Borsa Istanbul this week.
The inclusiveness of the stock markets has increased significantly this year with 52 IPOs, the total size of which reached 21.6 billion liras ($1.2 billion).
“It is clear that the vast majority of the first 1,000 industrial and service companies are still far from the stock market and our market capitalization/national income ratio is low compared to our peers,” Capital Markets Board (SPK) head Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu said at a congress of the Turkish Capital Markets Association (TSPB) on Dec. 14.
