The Turkish market’s decline this morning was entirely due to the announced sale of a 6.8% share in Turkcell by the Swedish telecom provider Telia, which directly and indirecty owns 38% of the Turkish mobile provider.
The BIST 30 index gave up 280 points today, but Turkcell’s decline in response to the public offer to institutional investors brought the index down by 420 points. Net of the one-time effect of the Turkcell sale, the index would have risen. Turkcell is up by more than a third from its January low, so Telia’s action probably reflects profit-taking.