Turkish shares open flat ahead of Fed chief's speech

By Bahattin Gonultas

ANKARA

Turkish shares opened flat on Friday ahead of a speech by the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve Janet Yellen, with the Borsa Istanbul’s BIST-100 share index losing 58.59 points (0.09 percent) to dip at 76,731.30 at the opening of the daily’s session.

The banking and holding sectors indexes were down 0.09 percent and 0.05 percent, respectively

On Friday, the Turkish lira began trading at 2.9370 against the U.S. dollar, up from 2.9425 at Thursday's close.

“While awaiting clues from U.S. Fed Chair Yellen’s keynote speech at the annual Jackson Hole meeting today, major world equity indices’ performance was rather sluggish on Thursday, with investors sidelined,” Istanbul-based Seker Investment said in a client note on Friday.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen is due to give a speech Friday that could include policy changes, although a shift in the approach to interest rates is not expected.

There were no major local data releases on Friday.

On Thursday, the local fixed income markets were positive while the two-year benchmark bond ended at 9.00 percent, 10 base points below its previous close.