FEAS Yearbook FEAS Yearbook 2008 | Page 30

FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES SEMI ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER 2008 ISTANBUL STOCK EXCHANGE xxxx Huseyin Erkan Chairman & CEO The global economy seems to stand at a difficult point, where demand slows sharply in most developed economies and inflation rises all over the world, but particularly in developing countries. Global growth, which continued robustly in the last four years, is expected to retard notably in the second half of 2008, before recovering, gradually in 2009. In developed countries, business and consumer sentiment have continued to retreat, while industrial production has weakened further. On the other hand, there have been signs of weakening business activity in emerging economies as well. Risks related to global imbalances, such as the continuing decline of the US Dollar and slower growth of the US economy, and rising international oil prices, still lead to worries. It is worth noting that, in spite of the global slowdown, rising energy and commodity prices have boosted inflationary pressure especially in the developing countries. Oil prices have risen significantly, driven by supply concerns, while food prices have increased due to adverse weather conditions. FUTURE OUTLOOK • As part of its strategic plan in the mid-term, the ISE is planning to increase the number of public offerings through a number of activities in 2008. A series of seminars, private meetings are planned to be organized across the country in cooperation with the local Chambers of Commerce and/or Industry in order to increase the awareness among the companies about public offerings; the benefits and procedures. As the second stage, consultancy units will be Against this background, the top priority for policymakers is to head off rising inflationary pressure, while also holding risks to growth under control. In many emerging economies tighter monetary policy and greater fiscal restraints are required, which, in some cases, is combined with more flexible exchange rate management. In major developed economies, on the other hand, monetary tightening is less imposing since inflation expectations and labour costs are projected to remain well anchored while growth weakens noticeably, but inflation pressures still need to be monitored cautiously. Not surprisingly, financial market conditions are not very favourable, and the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) has got its share. The ISE National-100 Index, the main indicator of the ISE, decreased by 40% in US$ terms in the first half of 2008, compared to the values at end-2007. The Stock Market total traded value maintained its vivacity on the other hand, amounting to US$ 144 billion for the first two quarters of the year. The average daily traded established at the Chambers of Commerce and/or Industry of every city, which will inform the companies on public offerings without any charge. The training of the personnel of these units will be given by the Istanbul Stock Exchange. • The ISE and the Istanbul Gold Exchange signed a cooperation protocol on July 17, 2008 in order to attract the precious metal companies. • The ISE, as the coordinator of the Organization of Islamic Conference Member value stood at US$ 1.1 billion during the same period. As of June-2008, 320 companies are traded on the ISE. The market capitalisation of the ISE declined by 33% compared to end-2007, dropping to US$ 194 billion as of end-June 2008. The share of foreign portfolio investors in the free-floating shares of the ISE stood at 72% as of end-2007 while this decreased only slightly to 69.8% as of June-2008. The average daily trading volume on the ISE Bonds and Bills Market, on the other hand, maintained its level of 2007. In the first half of 2008, the daily average trading volume of the Outright Purchases and Sales Market decreased by 12.5% to US$ 969 million, while the average daily trading volume of the Repo/Reverse Repo Market showed an increase by 1.2% to reach US$ 8,049 as of June 2008. States’ Stock Exchanges Forum a platform to reinforce the cooperation among the participating stock exchanges, will host the second Forum Meeting and the Working Committee meetings on October 18-19, 2008 in Istanbul. • Work towards trading of warrants on the the Istanbul Stock Exchange is being carried out in coordination with the Capital Markets Board (CMB) of Turkey. In this regard, CMB will regulate warrant trading and the ISE will determine the listing and trading principles. CONTACT INFORMATION Contact Name Mr. Eren Kiliclioglu E-mail [email protected] Website www.ise.org PAGE 30