Day: April 18, 2022

The trade volume on Turkiye’s spot natural gas market showed an increase of 88.3% to 45.42 million Turkish liras on Sunday, Turkiye’s Energy Exchange Istanbul (EXIST) data showed on Monday.

Total trade on Saturday amounted to 24.12 million liras.

On Sunday’s spot market, 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas cost 11,975.66 liras, while the cumulative natural gas trade volume amounted to around 3.79 million cubic meters.

Turkiye received 119.8 million cubic meters of pipeline gas on Sunday.

US$1 equals 14.64 liras at 1120 GMT on Monday.

By Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu

Source: Anadolu Agency

The highest electricity price rate for one megawatt-hour on Turkiye’s day-ahead spot market for Tuesday will be 2,500 Turkish liras between 09.00 and 11.00 local time (0600 – 0800 GMT) and between 16.00 and 23.00 local time (1300 – 2000 GMT), according to official figures on Monday.

The lowest is determined as 2,044.29 liras at 07.00 local time (0400 GMT), the figures show.

The Energy Exchange Istanbul (EXIST) data for the trade volume on Monday’s electricity market showed an increase of 17.9% to 1.28 billion liras compared to Sunday.

The arithmetical and weighted average prices of electricity on the day-ahead spot market are calculated as 2,416.27 liras and 2,424.16 liras, respectively.

The highest electricity price rate for one megawatt-hour for Monday was set as 2,499 liras at 20.00 and 21.00 local time (1700 – 1800 GMT), with the lowest at 749.99 liras at 06.00 local time (0300 GMT).

US$1 equals 14.64 liras at 1120 GMT on Monday.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Oil prices increased on Monday over renewed tension between Russia and Ukraine, along with reports of EU discussions on a ban on Russian oil, triggering supply fears.

International benchmark Brent crude cost $112.03 per barrel at 0629 GMT for an 0.3% increase after closing the previous session at $111.70 a barrel.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $106.66 per barrel at the same time for a 0.3% increase after the previous session closed at $106.38 a barrel.

Over the weekend, tensions grew when Ukrainian troops in the besieged strategic port city of Mariupol held out in defiance against Russia’s siege of the city.

“The city still has not fallen. There (are) still our military forces, our soldiers, so they will fight until the end,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in an interview with ABC’s This Week program on Sunday.

A total of 1,499 more civilians were evacuated from conflict zones in Ukraine on Friday. Civilians from Mariupol, Berdyansk, Pologov, and Vasilevsky were moved to the Zaporizhzhia region via nine humanitarian corridors that were agreed upon on April 16, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Saturday.

On Sunday, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on EU countries to quickly supply weapons to Ukraine for defense against Russia. On the sixth package of sanctions that the EU is preparing against Russia, von der Leyen said they would continue to target the banking sector, especially Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank.

“Of course, there are also energy issues,” she added, without giving further details. The top EU official said everything must be done to end the Russia-Ukraine war as soon as possible.

“At the same time, we must prepare ourselves for the fact that in the worst case, the war could last for months or even years,” she said.

Meanwhile, putting further pressure on supplies, Libya!s National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared a force majeure on Sunday on oil exports from the El-Feel oilfield in the country’s southwest.

In a statement, the state-owned company reported a halt in oil production until further notice after a group of people entered the facility and prevented employees from working. It did not, however, identify this group of people.

Tribal leaders in southern Libya had earlier announced a halt in production from the oilfield until Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh hands over power to the newly appointed government of Fathi Bashagha.

The El-Feel field can produce 90,000 barrels per day but typically produces closer to 70,000 barrels per day.

Libya has the ninth-largest known oil reserves worldwide and the largest oil reserves in Africa.

To temper supply fears, the oil rig count in the US increased last week, according to the latest data released by oilfield services company Baker Hughes on Friday. The number of oil rigs, an indicator of short-term production in the country, rose by 2 to 548 for the week ending April 15 from 546 the previous week.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkiye’s benchmark stock index opened at 2,502.97 points on Monday, rising 8.6 points, or 0.34%, from the previous close.

Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index was up 0.77% for an all-time high closing of 2,494.37 points on Friday, with a daily trading volume of 33 billion liras ($2.2 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose slightly to 14.6440 as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT), from 14.6300 at last week’s close.

The euro/lira exchange rate stood at 15.8113 versus 15.8200, while a British pound traded for 19.0670 liras, down from 19.1500 at the last close.

Brent crude oil was sold for around $112 per barrel as of 10 a.m. local time, while the ounce price of gold was at $1,991.30.

Source: Anadolu Agency

An international economic summit to encourage cooperation between Russia and the Islamic world will be held in Kazan, the capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, on May 19-21.

The 13th International Economic Summit: Russia-Islamic World: KazanSummit 2022, aims to foster cooperation in trade, economy, science and technology, and promote social and cultural ties between Russia and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries.

On the agenda of the three-day event, of which Anadolu Agency is the global communication partner, will be the sharing economy – a socio-economic system built around the sharing of resources, the halal industry, Islamic finance, youth diplomacy, export development, entrepreneurship and investments.

The event will also cover the Russia Halal Expo 2022 exhibition, World Halal Day and events dedicated to the 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by the Volga Bulgarians.

“This event is the main Russian platform for discussing cooperation and implementation of joint projects, presenting economic opportunities and investment potential, as well as establishing business contacts,” said the Head of the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency Taliya Minullina.

“KazanSummit 2022 will expand the economic opportunities and business potential of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region and OIC countries and increase the recognition of Muslim startups in the global market,” Minullina added.

Among the summit’s traditional events is the Forum of Young Entrepreneurs of OIC Countries, the Forum of Young Diplomats of OIC Countries, and SberTalk – a multimodal offline discussion platform with representatives of government and business, where real problems of the financial sector will be discussed.

The program also includes a significant investment block with 50 innovative start-ups from Russian regions and OIC countries.

A Modest Fashion Day festival will be held on May 19, and a fashion show will be held on the evening of May 19.

In 2021, the summit hosted about 5,000 delegates from 64 countries and 41 regions of Russia. The leadership of more than 10 ministries of foreign states also participated in the summit.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkiye’s external assets were worth $288.1 billion in February, down 1.6% from the end of 2021, according to data released by the Turkish Central Bank data on Monday.

Liabilities against non-residents fell 2% to $512.1 billion during the same period.

The net international investment position (NIIP), defined as the difference between external assets and liabilities, was minus $224 billion at the end of February, versus minus $229.7 billion at the end of 2021.

Showing a snapshot in time, the NIIP – which can be either positive or negative – is the value of overseas assets owned by a nation, minus the value of domestic assets owned by foreigners, including overseas assets and liabilities held by a nation’s government, the private sector and citizens.

As for sub-items under assets, reserve assets slipped 0.6% to $110.5 billion, while other investments stood at $118.2 billion, falling 2.3% from the end of 2021.

“Currency and deposits of banks, one of the sub-items of other investment, recorded $52.4 billion indicating an increase of 1.7% compared to the end of 2021,” the bank said.

On the liabilities side, direct investments – equity capital plus other capital – at the end of February amounted to $105.5 billion.

The figure was 13.4% lower than the end of last year, with “changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates” being contributing factors, the bank said.

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 12.24 at the end of 2021 and had risen to around 14.06 by the end of February.

Non-residents’ foreign exchange deposits were up 0.7% to $35.1 billion, while Turkish lira deposits increased by 26% to $12.2 billion.

“Other investment indicated an increase of 2.8% to $313.1 billion compared to the end of 2021,” the bank said.

The total external loan stock of banks was at $65.8 billion, down 1.2% from the end of 2021, while total external loan stock of other sectors dropped 0.3% to $96.4 billion.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Europe’s biggest solar power plant, the under-construction Karapinar plant in Konya in south-central Turkey, is poised to be fully operational by the end of 2022, Cemal Kalyoncu, the chairman of Kalyon Holding, the company responsible for the project, said on Monday.

The current installed capacity of the power plant is 700 megawatts (MW), but this will increase to 1,350 MW when fully operational to provide power for 2 million people.

“When fully constructed, the capacity will cover an area equivalent to 2,600 football fields, will employ 3,000 people, and provide solar energy to people in Konya,” Kalyoncu said.

The Karapinar plant is the largest solar facility in the country to have received the biggest financial contribution in Turkiye in the renewables sector.

Kalyon Enerji, a subsidiary of Kalyon Holding, signed a financing agreement with eight Turkish and international banks for $812 million for the plant. UK Export Finance, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Denizbank, Garanti BBVA, Turkiye Is Bankasi, Development and Investment Bank of Turkey, Industrial Development Bank of Turkey and VakifBank will provide the financial backing with a maturity of 12 years for the project.

Kalyoncu said that savings of $600 million will be made from the prevention of the country’s natural gas imports with the power plant in Konya and the solar panel factory in Ankara, which will provide solar panels for the plant.

The company is also active in other renewable energy fields, including wind energy and hydroelectricity.

Source: Anadolu Agency

China’s economy expanded 4.8% on an annual basis to 27 trillion yuan ($4.25 trillion) in the first quarter of the year, according to provisional official data released on Monday.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) was also up 1.3% from the previous quarter.

The US dollar/Chinese yuan exchange rate averaged at 6.35 during the first quarter of 2021.

Despite increasing COVID-19 cases in the country and the complex international environment, China achieved sustainable economic recovery thanks to strictly implemented decisions and measures, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

During the January-March period, the country’s agriculture sector enlarged by 4.8% “with generally favorable weather conditions and stronger agricultural production services.”

Meat production increased by 8.8%, milk by 8.3% and eggs by 2.5%, the data showed.

On the industry side, the sector grew 6.5% year-on-year in the first quarter.

“In terms of sectors, the value-added mining increased by 10.7% year-on-year, manufacturing increased by 6.2%, and production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water increased by 6.1%,” it added.

China’s services sector also expanded by 2.5%, particularly software and information technology services and financial intermediation, which grew by 10.8% and 5.1% year-on-year, respectively.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Major Asian stock markets, except for the Hang Seng benchmark, closed Monday down, amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, and China’s COVID-19 measures, which have negatively affected the country’s economy.

The Chinese economy grew by 4.8% in the first quarter of 2022, above market expectations but below the government’s official target of 5.5%. The COVID-19 measures are expected to have a greater impact on the second quarter.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 28.95 points, or 0.83%, to close at around 3,469 points.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock exchange was down 293.48 points, or 1.08%, to 26,799.?

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, was only the index posting an increase, up 143.71 points, or 0.67%, to 21,518.

China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange lost 15.72 points, or 0.49%, to close at 3,195 points.

The Indian Sensex benchmark was down 1,172 points, or 2.01%, to end the day at 57,166 points.

The Singapore index fell 32.78 points, or 0.98%, to 3,303.

Source: Anadolu Agency