Market liquidity

Global index provider FTSE Russell announced during the March 2020 interim review a series of clarifications regarding the promotion of Romania to the status of Secondary Emerging Market, according to a press release of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

The Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT) on March 31 introduced new measures to limit the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The steps aimed to back monetary transmission mechanisms, banks' flexibility in liquidity management, uninterrupted credit flows to the corporate sector, and firms exporting goods and services.

Still reeling from a decade-long financial depression and with the economy already taking a beating from impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, the government is asking the EU to cut it some slack in the use of NSRF (National Strategic Reference Framework in order to address the latest crisis.

Addressing concerns of the fallout from coronavirus, in an extraordinary meeting on March 17 the Turkish Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) cut its policy rate from 10.75 to 9.75.

The bank was set to meet on March 19, but with fears of the virus mounting, and cases climbing worldwide, the meeting was moved up.

The Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) on Wednesday asked the government to introduce measures to support tourism enterprises over the period of the coronavirus epidemic.
Its proposals include the reduction of operating costs, the strengthening of employment and the securing of liquidity.

A number of Athens-listed companies are planning to take part in a new wave of bond issues, aiming to make the most of the favorable climate in the market and the improvement in investor confidence in Greece.

Turkey's Central Bank on Jan. 20 said it will distribute accumulated contingent reserves with annual profit, excluding last year's.

The decision came at its top huddle in the capital Ankara where stakeholders gathered to discuss and vote on the 2019 profit distribution.

Despite the strong rally by Greek stocks since the start of the year, HSBC estimates the Athens Exchange still has great potential to climb further. On Tuesday the British bank upgraded its recommendation for the local market from neutral to overweight, stressing that Greece's macroeconomic prospects have improved considerably after the elections, with a positive impact on stocks.

The insurance market has recorded a solid growth this year, overall and by segments, with insurance companies' solvency and liquidity levels being more or less the same as those recorded in 2018, according to the head of the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF), Leonardo Badea.

The Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) is considering swapping bonds from the 2012 private sector involvement (PSI) debt easing scheme that did not participate in the 2017 swap, by reopening last March's 10-year bond issue. Sources say that US bank Goldman Sachs will run the project.