Turkish lira, and stocks, steady

The Turkish lira steadied against the dollar and shares firmed in early trading on Thursday, as analysts took the view that US monetary authorities would not tighten their policy immediately. One factor driving this sentiment was tension over the situation in Syria. The lira was being quoted at 2.0347 to the dollar from 2.0605 late on Wednesday when during trading it had reached another record low value of 2.070 to the dollar. The lira has fallen heavily in recent weeks because the prospect that the US Federal Reserve central bank would begin to curb easy-money stimulus had caused an outflow of capital and spotlighted weaknesses in the Turkish economy. The main stock index in Istanbul, the BIST100 which had fallen heavily last week and this week up to Tuesday, rallied by 0.88 percent to 66,027.88 points. On Wednesday the index had steadied to close with a gain of 0.1 percent. Market sentiment now holds that the Federal Reserve will not begin to curtail stimulus to the US economy, some of which has flowed into emerging economies, while tensions run high over a possible attack by the United States and its allies on Syria.