ISTANBUL: Turkish bond yields fell and the lira strengthened on Tuesday, helped by a declining oil price, but stocks snapped a week-long gaining streak to ease 1.0 percent as fears of a nuclear crisis in Japan mounted.
By 0748 GMT the lira traded slightly stronger at 1.5750 to the dollar on the inter bank market from a previous close of 1.5795. The yield on the Nov 7, 2012 benchmark bond fell to 8.73 percent from 8.79 on Monday.
Brent crude fell by as much as 2.2 percent to below $112 as a deepening nuclear crisis in Japan and rising radioactivity levels heightened risk aversion across financial markets.
Higher oil prices of recent weeks have hit Turkish assets hard, as the country imports 95 percent of its natural gas and oil from overseas.
Turkish stocks, which have gained every day since last Tuesday, opened down 1.04 percent at 63,833 points, outperforming a 1.81 percent decline in the emerging market benchmark index.
"The past few days' out performance is no guarantee for today. Turkey is not trading in a league of its own. Given the sharp sell off in Asian markets and US futures we expect Turkish equities to open around 1 percent lower," Is Invest said in a note.
The index rose last week helped by declining oil prices and a perception that Turkish company valuations now looked cheap.
Shares of Erdemir, Turkey's biggest steelmaker, gained 2.4 percent to 3.84 lira after the company swung back into profit in 2010 posting net gains of 766 million Turkish lira ($487.9 million) late on Monday, after a loss of 168.7 million lira last year.
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