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Turkey's Muharrem Ince withdraws from presidential
elections
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China stocks, yuan fall after weak CPI data
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South Africa's rand hits fresh three-year low
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Pakistan rupee slumps to record low amid protests
(Updates to add moves in Turkey's assets after presidential
candidate withdrawal, adds comment)
By Amruta Khandekar
May 11 (Reuters) - Emerging market stocks fell for a
third session on Thursday as gloomy data from China stoked
concerns about deflation, while Turkey's equities and bonds
rallied after presidential election candidate Muharrem Ince
announced his withdrawal from the race.
The MSCI's index for emerging market stocks was
down 0.2% at 1154 GMT, while currencies in the region were also subdued, down 0.1%.
Turkey's dollar-denominated government bonds jumped as
much as 2.4 cents on the dollar, while the main BIST-100 stock
index rallied 6.2%, with bank stocks climbing 9.6%.
Ince, one of the four contesting the election, withdrew
days before Sunday's vote, in a potential boost to the main
rival of President Tayyip Erdogan.
A survey earlier in the day showed Erdogan lagging his main
rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu by more than five percentage points.
"Ince's withdrawal swings more votes in Kilicdaroglu's favour
and reinforces his position as the favourite. Attention may soon
turn to how difficult it will be to fix the economic crisis and
maintain unity of a diverse coalition," said Hasnain Malik, head
of equity research at Tellimer.
Meanwhile, stocks in China slipped 0.2% and
the yuan hit a two-month low against the dollar, as data
showed China's consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in more
than two years in April, while factory gate deflation deepened.
The dollar , which had taken a hit on Wednesday after
a U.S. inflation report raised bets of a rate-hike pause by the
Federal Reserve, found its footing following the release of the
Chinese data, which provided further evidence of the country's
weak post-pandemic recovery.
The South African rand came under renewed selling
pressure, hitting a fresh three-year low against the dollar, as
sentiment towards the currency was dented by the country's worst
power cuts on record.
"South Africa is moving into the colder winter months and
preparations are being made for an escalation of the
load-shedding schedule. This is having a dire effect on what is
already a fragile economy," said Shaun Murison, a senior market
analyst at IG.
Pakistan's rupee fell to a record low of 296.93 against the
greenback, amid deadly street protests sparked by the arrest of
former Prime Minister Imran Khan and some senior leaders of his
party.
The Hungarian forint and the Polish zloty slid from over one-year highs hit in the previous
session, down 0.6% and 0.1%, respectively, while the Czech crown slipped 0.1% against the euro.
Czech inflation slowed further in April to its lowest since
March 2022, data showed, possibly taking pressure off the
country's central bank to hike rates.
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team is expected
to arrive in Sri Lanka on Thursday as the crisis-hit country
prepares for the first review of a loan programme in September.
For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2023, see For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2023, see For TOP NEWS across emerging markets For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see For TURKISH market report, see For RUSSIAN market report, see (Reporting by Amruta Khandekar; Editing by Bernadette Baum and
Subhranshu Sahu)
