EM shares rise, with spotlight on Turkish rate decision

Emerging-market shares rose on Thursday amid optimism over trade, while developing-world currencies tread water ahead of the Turkish central bank meeting, where officials are expected to deliver one of the biggest rate cuts in the country’s history.

A Reuters poll forecast the Turkish central bank would cut a key rate by 250 basis points, and several analysts have priced predicted a cut of as much as 300 bps.

The rate decision is considered pivotal. The central bank has a new governor, Mural Uysal, who was named after President Tayyip Erdogan sacked his predecessor, Murat Cetinkaya. Reuters reported last week that Cetinkaya was fired after he rebuffed requests for a 300-bps cut on June 12.

The rate decision will be announced at 1100 GMT.

“We find it difficult to make a forecast with conviction, given the political pressure on the bank and lack of clarity on how much emphasis the bank will give to the base-effects-driven decline in inflation,” said analysts from Credit Suisse in a note.

The lira was slightly lower and stocks in Istanbul rose 0.2%.

In other developing-world currencies, South Africa’s rand slid 0.4% after the ratings agency Moody’s said a government proposal to prop up the debt-laden utility Eskom was “credit negative”.

Read: Moody’s says new Eskom support credit negative for SA

MSCI’s index for emerging-market stocks rose, led by Chinese and Hong Kong shares, as investors cheered potential progress in Sino-US trade talks. Top US and Chinese negotiators will meet next week for the first time since President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to revive talks to end their year-long trade war.

Shares in South Korea’s kospi fell 0.4% after the country’s military said that North Korea fired two short-range missiles early on Thursday.

In emerging Europe, Hungary’s forint and Poland’s zloty gained before a European Central Bank meeting later in the day. Expectations the ECB will cut interest rates grew after discouraging economic data on Wednesday.

Source: moneyweb.co.za