Page 16 - bne_newspaper_February_16_2019

Southeast Europe
February 16, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
EMs “most crowded” say investors
Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s (BAML’s) latest survey of investors marked a U-turn in sentiment towards EMs to “most crowded trade” in February from “short EM” in January, Reuters reported on February 12.
Assets named “most crowded” usually sink soon afterwards, Reuters noted.
The International Institute of Finance (IIF) is also among observers staying cautious on the latest rush into EMs.
“Inflows feel good to EMs while they last. But—as 2018 showed—they never last!” Robin Brooks of the IIF said on February 12 in a tweet.
Morgan Stanley estimates Turkey’s real rates are double the level for emerging markets as a whole, Bloomberg reported on February 12.
Meanwhile, the Turkish government, having become a retailer of cheap veg in the face
of rampant food inflation and claimed dirty
tricks with prices perpetrated by private retail businesses, said on February 12 that the Ministry of Treasury and Finance has mandated Citigroup, Kuwait Finance House and Standard Chartered
to re-tap international markets with a USD- denominated lease certificate issuance on the international capital markets.
The latest sukuks from the Turkish government will have a maturity of three years, Reuters reported on the day, citing a document issued by one of the mandated lenders.
Also on February 12, the Turkish Treasury sold TRY2bn—including TRY985mn to the market— worth of non-coupon bills (re-open) due January 2020 at a yield of 19.26%, according to Reuters.
Real sector woes shown by tractor market Contrary to the pinkish sentiment on the financial markets, the Turkish real sector keeps revising down its 2019 outlooks.
Turkey’s tractor market contracted 34% y/y
to about 48,000 units in 2018 due to rising agricultural input costs and unfavourable weather conditions and Turk Traktor, which has a 43% domestic market share, expects the local market to contract further to 33,000-38,000 units in 2019, Aykut Ozuner, general manager of the company, said on February 11.