The Turkey exchange traded fund plunged Thursday and the Turkish lira fell to a record low after a shakedown in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s cabinet on graft allegations.
The iShares MSCI Turkey ETF (NYSEArca: TUR) fell 6.9% Thursday. TUR is down 24.0% year-to-date.
Prime Minister Erdogan fired four ministers and announced a new cabinet change up of 10 new cabinet members, following a slew of corruption charges, reports Emre Peker for the Wall Street Journal. [Corruption Charges Ruffle Turkey ETF]
“Forced to act, Erdogan tried to get rid of his burdens,” Atilla Yesilada, an analyst at risk consultancy Global Source Partners, said in the WSJ article. “But this is a political crisis, and it is hard to tell how it will unfold, these investigations may expand in coming months.”
The Turkish lira hit a record-low 2.1406 per U.S. dollar Thursday while the Borsa Instanbul 100 Index moved toward its lowest close since August 2012, Bloomberg reports.
“Turkey had a group of foreign investors who didn’t care much about political risk, now that is going to get priced in,” Volkan Sari, a private wealth manager based in Istanbul, said in the WSJ article. “In coming days, stocks will move down, the dollar will gain against the lira, and interest rates will rise.”
Turkish stocks initial rallied Wednesday on greater perceived political stability, but fell Thursday after Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar called for PM Erdogan’s resignation.