Turkey Plans to Resume Stock Trading on Wednesday

Turkey is planning to restart trading at Borsa Istanbul Wednesday, according to an official with direct knowledge of the matter.

(Bloomberg) —

Turkey is planning to restart trading at Borsa Istanbul Wednesday, according to an official with direct knowledge of the matter.

Authorities are rolling out a slew of measures that might boost Turkish equities when trading resumes, including tax waivers on share buybacks, the official said, asking not to be identified as the decision hasn’t been made public.

Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati led a meeting with the central bank, capital markets board, the banking watchdog and heads of state-run commercial lenders on Monday, where the measures were discussed.

Authorities were weighing an extension to the trade halt ahead of Monday’s meeting. As of Tuesday morning, the plan is not to announce an extension and allow the trading to begin on Feb. 15 as originally intended.

The bourse suspended trading last Wednesday and canceled trades made that day after two earthquakes on Feb. 6 devastated 10 cities in the worst natural disaster in modern Turkish history. The benchmark Borsa Istanbul 100 Index, which was already the worst-performing equity market in the world this year, erased tens of billions of dollars in market value over the two days it stayed open last week.

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