Turkey’s stock market is up half a percent today led by Turkish airlines and the country’s main oil refiners and petrochemical companies, who benefit from lower oil prices
Asian oil importers are up strongly today, led by Korea (+2.3%) and Philippines (+1.5%). Asia is better across the board despite weakness in Europe and softness in US index futures.
As Asia Times reports today, softness in China’s manufacturing PMI and in the April trade data put all the more pressure on Beijing to proceed with “One Belt, One Road” investments in its periphery (which now extends to Turkey). And the Asian Development Bank has aggressive plans to invest in infrastructure, as we note today in Asia Unhedged. That puts the Asian peripheral markets in the catbird seat.