ISTANBUL: Turkey's lira and bonds firmed on Thursday after its current account deficit came in narrower than expected in September, while shares in pension firm Avivasa rose close to three percent in their stock market debut.
The lira strengthened to 2.246 from over 2.25 against the dollar late on Wednesday, while the 10-year government bond yield dropped to 8.63 percent from 8.75 percent.
Turkey's current account deficit, its main economic weakness, inched up to $2.2 billion in September from a revised $2.15 billion in August, but was below the $2.6 billion forecast in a Reuters poll and well below the $3.4 billion deficit in September last year.
The Istanbul stock index was up 1.28 percent by 0900 GMT, outperforming the broader MSCI emerging markets index , which was flat.
Shares in Avivasa, the joint venture pension unit of British insurer Aviva Plc and Turkey's Sabanci Holding , were up 2.6 percent at 48.25 lira in their first trading session.
Aviva and Sabanci completed the flotation of a 19.7 percent stake in Avivasa on Monday, valuing the firm at 1.68 billion lira ($746 million), in an offering that was almost three times oversubscribed.
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