LONDON, June 8 — Emerging stocks were on their longest losing streak in a quarter of a century today, led by a 6 per cent slump in Turkish stocks and a new record low for the lira after weekend elections triggered nervousness about its political environment.
Turkish markets dived after the ruling AK Party unexpectedly failed to win a majority in the parliamentary vote, leaving the country facing a coalition, a minority government or fresh elections.
Istanbul’s stocks topped the list of global fallers to put MSCI’s main EM index on its first 11-day run in the red since 1990. Large parts of Asia, much of eastern Europe and South Africa also saw selling.
“At this stage the process of forming a government (in Turkey) is unlikely to be straightforward, whether it is a coalition or a minority government,” said Barclays EMEA emerging markets economist Durukal Gun.
“Even if a government is formed, the debate would be whether this would be viable or not, and whether it would eventually lead to an early election as early as autumn 2015,” he added.
Investors’ appetite for risk was still being sapped by a rumbling sell-off in global bond markets and by the recent sharp moves in the world’s top currency, the dollar, which has a major influence in emerging markets.
As well as the 4 per cent slump in Turkey’s lira , the Malaysian ringgit hit a nine-year low and the Indonesian rupiah set a fresh 17-year low following robust US jobs data on Friday that had bolstered bets on an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve before year-end.
The election fallout sent Turkey’s 10-year benchmark bond surging to 9.98 per cent from 9.32 per cent.
US and core European bond yields edged higher too, continuing to erode the attractiveness of the relatively higher yields available in emerging markets.
Eastern Europe was subdued generally as a weakening of sentiment in the euro zone — the biggest market for many eastern Europe exporters, added to some political uncertainty in that region too.
Russia said today it saw nothing new in comments by leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) that took a tough line on the sanctions it is subject to over the Ukraine crisis.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and European Council President Donald Tusk both said they hoped the G7, meeting in Germany, would present a united front on the sanctions.
“Yes we paid attention to the latest declarations on sanctions. These are not new theses,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“We also drew attention to the fact that among the participants of this meeting there are nuances in their approaches. Some talk about the need for dialogue with Russia and the impossibility of solving serious problems without this dialogue, so we continue watching closely.”
Russia’s rouble and the main stock markets in Moscow were all little changed. — Reuters
