13 April 2010 / TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH REUTERS AND AP, İSTANBUL
The İstanbul Stock Exchange greeted the announcement of a Greek bailout plan by eurozone finance ministers with a 500 point gain in its benchmark index over Friday’s closing when it opened yesterday.
The İMKB-100 index opened trading with a strong rise of more than 500 points from the closing figure of 59,185 on Friday. The index ended the first session of trading at a lower figure of 59,311, or a 0.2 percent gain over Friday’s close. The euro rose, the yield on short-dated Greek bonds fell by over a point to around 5.9 percent and the cost of insuring Greek debt against default narrowed dramatically from Friday’s close as markets were impressed by the bigger-than-expected EU rescue plan. The yield on the country’s 12-month T-bill plummeted some 268 basis points to 5.28 percent, suggesting the threat of a near-term default had been lifted. The Athens bourse’s banking index (FTATBNK) rose 8.2 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 3.96 points, or 0.1 percent, at 5,774.94 while Germany’s DAX rose 9.62 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,259.32.
