Financial market

Turkish retailers DeFacto and Beymen have canceled their initial public offering, citing low demand stemming from recent high volatility in emerging markets.

The potential risk of commencing an investigation in the Competition Council concerning the tariff scheme must disappear, and on the General Assembly's agenda of next week there will be a cancellation of the decision to review the scheme, Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) CEO Adrian Tanase said in an interview for AGERPRES.

The free energy market will be the topic of a roundtable to be held in parliament on Tuesday, Nova TV reported.

MPs and the chair of the Energy Regulator will discuss the changes to the basic energy bill, with which the system will reach full liberalization.

Fears about inflation and soaring bond yields have sent the Dow plunging 6.5% through the first four trading days of this week. That would be the steepest decline in any week since October 2008.

Turkish fast-food chain operator TFI Tab Food Investments postponed its planned $220 million initial public offering in New York on Feb. 6, as the recent stock market volatility makes such stock market flotations challenging.

Greece is taking the necessary steps to facilitate liquidity for its future market forays, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Wednesday.

"We are doing the necessary spade work to ensure appropriate liquidity conditions for future exits to the market," Tsakalotos told Reuters, asked to comment on Greece's debt swap plans announced earlier on Wednesday.

Greece's borrowing costs dipped on Wednesday after the country announced a debt swap plan that analysts said would be significant for the country's bond market.

Greece on Wednesday invited private holders of about 30 billion euros in Greek debt to swap 20 small bonds for five new ones of longer maturity to boost its market liquidity before it emerges from bailouts in August 2018.

Banks appear reluctant to proceed with new corporate bond issues scheduled by the end of the year due to the outflow of deposits they entail in what is a difficult period given that the capital controls remain in place.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Thursday it had invested in the first publicly sold covered bond issued by a Greek bank since the government in Athens returned to international bond markets this year.

The development bank said it bought 30 million euros of the 750-million-euro offering by the National Bank of Greece.

Greece's return to the bond markets on Tuesday will have a particularly positive impact on the economy and the local credit system, according to senior bank officials.