Turks buying FX, foreigners buying Turkish shares since start of year

Turks buying FX, foreigners buying Turkish shares since start of year
By Akin Nazli in Belgrade February 7, 2019

Forex deposits held by Turkish-resident real persons at local lenders increased by $5.39bn to $101.9bn as of February 1 from $96.5bn as of December 28, central bank data showed on February 7.

FX deposits placed with local lenders, excluding Islamic lenders, by Turkish-resident real persons fell by around $5bn to $79.15bn as of August 17 from $84.08bn as of August 10—August was the month when the crisis-hit Turkish lira (TRY) plummeted to an all-time weak rate of TRY7.24 to the dollar. Since then, the deposits of this group have gradually increased. They reached $92.5bn as of February 1.

The central bank’s gross FX reserves rose to $77.1bn as of February 1 from $72bn as of December 28. The main driver was the Treasury’s $3.4bn worth of eurobond sales, unnamed bankers told Reuters.

Investor meetings in Tokyo
Turkey has mandated Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley and Nomura to hold a series of investor meetings in Tokyo, starting from February 25, the news agency also reported.

Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said last month that Turkey has launched talks to issue Yen-denominated Samurai bonds.

At the last Yen auction, held in December 2017, the Treasury sold $545mn (JPY60bn) worth of Samurai bonds.

Turkish residents’ FX deposits at foreign lenders abroad declined by $2.81bn from $42.9bn at end-October to $40.1bn at end-November, the central bank’s data on Turkey’s international investment position showed on January 18. Turks’ FX deposits abroad stood at $25.9bn at end-June.

Meanwhile, non-residents’ net purchases of Turkish equities amounted to $1.34bn in the five weeks running from December 28 to February 1. The non-residents, meanwhile, sold $800mn worth of domestic government bonds net across the same period, a separate weekly bulletin from the central bank showed on February 7.

Since testing the 5.17s on January 31, the TRY has lost ground against the dollar. The exchange rate was up 0.68% d/d to 5.25s

As of around 17:55 local time on February 7, the TRY stood at 5.2505 to the USD, 0.74% weaker d/d.

The Borsa Istanbul’s benchmark BIST-100 index was up 0.14% d/d to 102,724 in mid-afternoon trading.

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