Apparently, people are done with staying at home as spring sets in and the sun begins to shine. The number of daily coronavirus cases has exceeded 40,000 in the country. More than 240,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours with 40,806 infections confirmed, a worrying 17% positivity rate. Moreover, Turkey’s COVID-19 figures show the UK variant accounts for 75% of all cases in the country, said Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
On the economic front, as we all know, capital markets followed a fluctuating course last week after Central Bank Governor Naci Agbal was dismissed with a Presidential Decree two weeks ago. While residents made sales in their foreign exchange (FX) deposit accounts, non-residents fled from TRY assets in the face of the sharp increase in FX rates. Residents sold USD 8.9bn of FX, a parity-adjusted amount of USD 8.1bn, according to the Central Bank’s weekly money and banking statistics. Meanwhile, foreign investors sold USD 1.9bn in equities and government debt securities last week. This outflow was the sharpest sale in the capital markets since May 26, 2006, when they sold USD 2bn.
In other developments today, the Capital Market Boards of Turkey has issued fines totaling TRY 26.3m to 10 foreign institutions that broke the short selling ban. The following companies have been fined: Credit Suisse, Barclays, Merrill Lynch (BofA), Wood and Company Financial Services, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Moon Capital, Renaissance Capital, UBS AG London Branch, HSBC Bank PLC2.
Looking at the sine qua non of Turkey’s economic indicators, the USD/TRY, which reached 8.45 on Tuesday, declined for two consecutive days to 8.10. Today, the rate fell to USD/TRY 8.10-8.11. The EUR/TRY, meanwhile, is trading at 9.46. Spot gold stands at USD 1,732 per ounce while Brent crude is trading at USD 64.86.
DAILY AGENDA
The Central Bank will announce the Foreign Exchange Assets and Liabilities of Non-Financial Companies (2:30pm).
The Central Bank will release the ‘Bank Loans Tendency Survey’ for Q1 (2:30pm).
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