Turkey’s national carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) will make a decision regarding purchase of Poland’s flag carrier LOT within next one month.
Replying to a question on purchase of LOT, Hamdi Topcu, chairman of executive board of THY, said that works have been under way on buying of the airlines.
Talks have been under way with LOT, he said.
THY and LOT did not hold talks on the value of the Polish airlines, he said, adding that senior executives of LOT would come to Turkey in the coming days.
AA
By Mark O’Byrne
Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,627.00, EUR 1,250.77, and GBP 1,008.99 per ounce. Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,629.50, EUR 1,240.20 and GBP 1,007.54 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $29.74/oz., €22.91/oz. and £18.47/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,525.50/oz., palladium at $635.40/oz. and rhodium at $1,350/oz.
Gold fell $3.70 or 0.23% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,638.70/oz. Gold started out sideways in Asia then gradually dropped lower and this weakness continued in early European trading.
Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)
Gold edged lower on Tuesday despite the weaker euro and stock markets after furious citizens in Greece and France voted against austerity measures. Gold prices are being supported by bargain hunters who continue to buy dips around the lower end of the metal’s recent range between $1,620/oz. and $1,680/oz.
The elections in France and Greece create added political uncertainty to an already extremely uncertain financial and political situation and this is likely to weigh on the euro.
Euro gold remains firm around the EUR 1,250/oz. level where it has been consolidating since mid-March – in a range between €1,228/oz. and €1,276/oz.
Gold has been trading between $1,620 and $1,680 for about a month. It is supported by the very uncertain macroeconomic and monetary environment but recent price weakness has made some buyers – especially more speculative buyers in western markets hesitant.
via Turkey Exports ‘Massive Quantities Of Gold’ | Resource Investor.
Can the Muslim headscarf be synonymous with glamor? Turkey’s first fashion magazine for conservative Islamic women hopes to prove that it can.
Launched last June, the monthly Ala, which means “beauty,” has become a mainstream glossy.
With a circulation of 20,000, it is only slightly behind the Turkish versions of Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Elle magazines.
Ala’s pages are splashed with models reflecting a conservative Islamic style, all wearing headscarves and long dresses, with their arms and necks covered.
Ala’s editor, 24-year-old Hulya Aslan, has first-hand experience with Turkey’s headscarf troubles. Because she insisted on wearing one, she had to give up a university education, instead finding work at a bank.
Ala, created by two advertisers, offers the usual fare of health tips, travel pages and celebrity interviews, supplemented by a strong dose of loud and clear Islamic activism.
“Veiled Is Beautiful” proclaims one advertisement, driving home the point with the words: “My way, my choice, my life, my truth, my right.”
But such slogans sound more like a reference to the struggles of the past, when secularism monopolized the social scene and the Islamic headscarf, often viewed as a political symbol, met hostile reactions.
The struggle continues despite the 2002 poll victory of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has Islamist roots and many of whose members have spouses who wear headscarves, including Erdogan’s wife, Emine.
Although the strict application of secularism has been loosened under AKP rule, headscarves are still off-limits for civil servants. It is now allowed in some universities, while many others ban them.
In Turkey, 60 percent of women wear some type of hair covering, according to a 2006 survey conducted by the Istanbul-based Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation.
“There are now much prettier things than before,” said Merve Buyuk, a 22-year-old trainee at Ala. “Designers have now understood that we exist. They’ve started making clothes that are not necessarily black or brown. … I’m pretty happy with this change.”
Communication scientist Nilgun Tutal of Istanbul’s Galatasaray University said Ala attested to the rise of middle- and upper-class Muslims who were adapting to the consumer society, thanks to almost 10 years of AKP rule and Turkey’s sustained economic growth.
“At one time, Islam, to distinguish itself from the West, took a position hostile to consumer society. But today, these people, to express their success, can only do that through consumer society,” Tutal said.
AFP
via Turkish Beauty Magazine Ties Muslim Veil to Glamor | The Jakarta Globe.
Morgan Stanley managing director Ruchir Sharma wants emerging market investors to start looking ahead, arguing the next big markets will not be found among the BRICs.
In a recent Time article, Sharma points out that growth is slowing in Brazil ( EWZ , quote ), Russia ( TRF , quote ), India ( IFN , quote ), and China ( FXI , quote ).
The host of new counties replacing the BRICs will be “emerging markets that beat the expectations and rivals in their income class.”
Sharma highlights South Korea, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Philippines ( PHDOWD , quote ), Indonesia ( IF , quote ), and Turkey ( TUR , quote ) as the new winners in the global economy.
These countries are playing to their strengths, whether it be Korea’s manufacturing might, Indonesia’s commodities, or Poland’s fiscal responsibility.
The Morgan Stanley executive makes it clear that he is not bearish on the BRICS. However, he sees economic growth in these countries stabilizing, while new capital flows to the new emerging economies. Expect to see more growth in the overall world economy as a result, according to Sharma, while “investors betting big on emerging markets rising as a class will start treating them as individual stories.”
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
via Morgan Stanley exec: Turkey is the next frontier – NASDAQ.com.
NEW YORK (WABC) — The FAA is investigating an incident in which two Delta 767’s taxiing near the terminal area at JFK International Airport clipped wings.
The incident happened on Friday evening around 5:15 p.m. One plane was empty and being repositioned at the airport. Its wingtip clipped the tail section of a flight backing out of the gate that was en route to Istanbul.
Related Photos
Delta planes clip wings at JFK
There were 193 passengers and 11 crew members onboard Delta flight 72. The vertical stabilizer was damaged.
There were no injuries to anyone on board the Istanbul flight. The passengers were moved to another plane.
Delta said their flight would arrive about 2 hours late to Istanbul.
The FAA says the aircraft were not in communication with air traffic control when the incident occurred.
The incident did not impact airport operations.
Damage to the aircraft was still being assessed, according to the FAA and Delta.
via Two Delta planes clip wings at JFK Airport | 7online.com.
ISTANBUL — Rating companies are consistently wrong on Turkey and have “misrated” the country by about three levels, Royal Bank of Scotland said on Thursday.
“It is two to three notches mis-rated by any fair assessment,” RBS chief emerging markets economist Tim Ash said after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had lashed out at Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Thursday for cutting Turkey’s outlook earlier this week. “It should be investment grade already.”
S&P on Tuesday cut the outlook on Turkey’s rating to stable from positive, reducing prospects for an upgrade over the next 12 months. The company rates Turkey BB, the second-highest non-investment grade ranking. Fitch Ratings, which has Turkey at BB+, one step below investment grade, cut its outlook to stable from positive in November, citing its current-account deficit.
Mr Erdogan called S&P’s revision of Turkey’s outlook “strange” and “ideological” in a speech in Istanbul. “If necessary, we’ll make them pay with a statement that we don’t recognise S&P,” he said, without explaining what that entailed.
BLOOMBERG
via BusinessDay – RBS agrees Turkey’s ratings ‘are wrong’.
