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UPDATE 1-Turkish markets dip ahead of economic data

Published 09/14/2009, 10:56 AM
Updated 09/14/2009, 11:00 AM
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* Turkish stocks, lira ease slightly

* Investors await releases of key economic data

(Updates with closing prices)

By Ayla Jean Yackley

ISTANBUL, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Turkish stocks, the lira and bonds were little changed on Monday ahead of the release of key economic data this week and before the Central Bank's decision on interest rates.

Shares in Dogan Yayin, Turkey's biggest media company, gained for the second day in six on hopes it will reach a deal with the state tax authority over a record $2.5 billion fine for alleged unpaid taxes.

The Central Bank meets on Thursday and is expected to cut its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 7.25 percent, according to a Reuters poll of 20 economists. That would bring the total reduction since November to 950 basis points.

"We will perform better than (emerging market peers) until Thursday because of the rate cut expectation," said Ayse Colakoglu at Tera Brokers.

The government will also release unemployment figures for June on Tuesday, the consumer-confidence index on Wednesday and July and August budget balance data sometime this week.

The yield on the benchmark May 11, 2010 bond closed at 9.37 percent, unchanged from Friday, after touching a historic low of 9.22 percent last week.

The lira traded at 1.4975 to the dollar in Tuesday-dated trade after closing at 1.5030. It previously closed at 1.4970 on Friday, firming after Turkey posted its first current-account surplus in five years.

The ISE National 100 stock index dipped 0.2 percent to 46,490.66, outperforming the MSCI emerging-markets index, which lost 1.3 percent.

Dogan Yayin, the third most heavily traded stock, rose 4.35 percent to 1.20 lira. The shares have still lost about a quarter of their value since Sept 8, when it announced the Finance Ministry had fined it 3.76 billion lira.

"If Dogan and (the Finance Ministry) settle this, the fine could be halved or more," said Serap Mutlu, an analyst at BGC Partners. "Since Dogan applied to settle it, there's a feeling the worst has happened and the situation will improve."

Parent company Dogan Holding, which also has interests in energy, rose 6.14 percent to 1.21 lira.

Tofas, a car-manufacturing venture between Turkey's Koc Holding and Italian automaker Fiat, jumped 7.18 percent to 4.18 lira after newspapers reported the government will put in place a "cash-for-clunkers" deal similar to those in Europe and the United States to encourage consumers to trade in old cars for new ones.

The government previously introduced temporary tax cuts for the flagging sector. (Additional reporting by Thomas Grove, editing by Ron Askew)

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