Markets

Turkish lira stems losses as US jobs data eases Fed fears

Published February 7, 2014 Updated February 7, 2014 03:57pm

ISTANBUL: Weaker-than-expected US jobs data helped support Turkey's lira on Friday, lowering expectations that the Federal Reserve would speed up its tapering of monetary stimulus.

Data showed US employers hired far fewer workers than expected last month - non-farm payrolls rose by 113,000, well below the consensus of 185,000 - although the unemployment rate hit a five-year low of 6.6 percent.

The lira firmed to 2.1890 against the dollar after the data release, from 2.2060 late on Thursday, although it later eased again to trade at 2.2130 by 1600 GMT.

The main Istanbul share index closed up 0.1 percent at 64,614 points, underperforming the wider emerging markets index which rose 0.67 percent. The yield on the 10-year benchmark bond fell to 10.1 percent from 10.15 percent at Thursday's close.