Türkiye's stock market rallied sharply on Monday after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) secured a decisive win in Sunday's general elections, capturing 46.4 percent of the vote and 340 seats in the 550-seat parliament. The Istanbul Stock Exchange's IMKB-100 index climbed nearly 3.84 percent at the open, briefly setting a record high before closing the morning session up about 2.81 percent.
The result was widely anticipated: the exchange had already posted gains of more than 1.6 percent the prior week and over 4 percent the week before that. Analysts noted that the AKP's failure to win a two-thirds supermajority was itself reassuring, since the party will need to negotiate with other factions over the presidential election rather than act unilaterally.
Since the AKP first took power in November 2002, inflation fell from nearly 30 percent to under 10 percent, annual growth averaged 7 percent, and foreign direct investment rose from roughly 1.1 billion dollars to 20 billion dollars in 2006 alone. Public debt shrank from 78 percent to 45 percent of GNP over the same period.
Business leaders expect the new government to pursue reforms in social security, taxation, and decentralization. One investment bank official predicted the IMKB-100 could reach 60,000 points, calling the overall market trend bullish.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in July 2007, in its own words.