(Reuters) – Turkish stocks rose on Monday and the lira weakened slightly after hitting its record low against the dollar after the political opposition logged a thumping victory over President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party (AKP) in local elections.
Analysts said the near 70% inflation rate, slowing economic growth and an aggressive monetary tightening campaign that has jacked up borrowing costs hurt the AKP result on Sunday. Erdogan has stood by the tightening despite the high-stakes vote.
The benchmark stock index BIST 100 opened up more than 1% with banking shares up 1.7%. At 0730 GMT, the indexes were up 0.63% and 2.12% respectively.
The lira briefly touched 33 versus the dollar in overnight trade in very thin liquidity, following the election results.
At 0730 GMT it stood at 32.43, slightly weaker than Friday’s close. Many foreign financial markets were closed on Monday for Easter holidays.
Turkey’s five-year credit default swaps, a measure of investment risk, edged lower while bond yields dipped slightly.
The nationwide results marked the biggest electoral blow for Erdogan and his AKP in more than two decades in power, reasserting the opposition as a force and reinforcing Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as the president’s chief rival.
(Reporting by Canan Sevgili; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
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