Banking stocks continue to melt down: Claims that 'foreigners are selling'

Following the detention order issued for CHP presidential hopeful and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and 106 others, markets experienced volatility. The Borsa Istanbul BIST 100 index was shaken by a drop of approximately 950 points. The banking index suffered serious losses alongside the possibility of the Central Bank delaying interest rate cuts.

The sharp market movements yesterday caused collapses in the stock exchange. A decline of up to 20 percent was recorded in banking stocks on a weekly basis. The banking index, which started the week at 16,864 points, fell to 13,531 points today. The weekly decline in the BIST 100 index was around 11 percent.

As of 16:32, the BIST 100 index was trading at 9,763 points with a 1.10 percent decline, while the banking index was at 13,650 points with an 8.44 percent loss. It was known that banking stocks were mostly preferred by foreign investors. Following the decline in stocks, it was claimed on social media that foreign investors were selling off their holdings after the detention order issued for İmamoğlu and 105 others.

Traders emphasized that the Central Bank had to sell approximately 10 billion dollars in foreign currency yesterday, while the stock exchange closed the day with a 9 percent loss and the banking index with a loss of nearly 10 percent.