 and appointed a temporary caretaker board, while new inflation data came in higher than expected.){kind=link}
Turkey’s main stock exchange fell for a second day after a court removed the İstanbul leadership of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and appointed a temporary caretaker board, while new inflation data came in higher than expected, the Ekonomim news website reported on Wednesday.
Borsa İstanbul is Turkey’s primary stock exchange, similar to the New York Stock Exchange in the United States.
Its main barometer is the BIST 100 index, a basket of the 100 largest and most traded companies.
The index fell more than 3 percent on Tuesday and dropped again on Wednesday during the session, with the banking subindex down more than 6 percent at one point.
A subindex is a smaller group inside a larger index that tracks a single sector such as banks.
Traders said two forces drove the sell-off.
The first was political risk after a civil court annulled the opposition party’s 2023 İstanbul provincial congress, dismissed provincial chair Özgür Çelik and his board and named a five-person caretaker team to run the branch until a new internal vote.
A caretaker board in this context means a temporary group appointed by a judge to manage a party unit until procedures conclude.
The CHP is Turkey’s oldest political party and the main rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s movement, and its İstanbul branch anchors support for İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
The second force was inflation.
Official data showed consumer prices rose 2.04 percent in August from July, above market expectations of about 1.8 percent, which pushed the annual rate to 32.95 percent.
Higher than expected inflation can limit interest rate cuts by the central bank.
When investors think rate cuts will be smaller or slower, borrowing costs stay higher for longer, which can weigh on shares, especially banks that depend on loan growth and cheap funding.
Market analysts said key trading levels for the BIST 100 sit at around 10,700 points as near term support and 11,000 to 11,100 points as resistance, terms traders use for areas where selling or buying often emerges.
Support refers to a price area where buyers tend to step in, while resistance is a zone where sellers often appear.
Investors also watched the political calendar.
A hearing on September 15 will examine a case that challenges the opposition party’s national leadership vote that made Özgür Özel chairman in November 2023.
Pro government commentators said the İstanbul ruling may foreshadow a decision against the national leadership, while opposition figures called the court moves an attack on party autonomy.
The central bank’s next interest rate decision is due on September 11, which will shape expectations for borrowing costs through the rest of the year.
For now, traders said headlines, inflation and interest rate expectations will steer price moves more than specific company news.