Setting aside TNT, uranium fuel rods and nitro-glycerine, in ETF land, there are few compounds that can give you the kind of white-knuckle ride offered by blockchain thematics – that was until Turkey gave monetary and political uncertainty a spin.
On Monday, the iShares MSCI Turkey UCITS ETF (ITKY) had almost 8% slashed off its valuation after incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured 49.5% of the vote after the first round on 14 May.
Just two trading days prior, the ETF bounced 9.4% in a single session as investors bet opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu would win the presidency.
It is expected the challenger candidate would restore Turkey’s central bank policy to something more closely resembling monetary orthodoxy after it slashed interest rates from 19% to 8.5% last year, sending inflation skyrocketing to 84.4% by November.
However, failure by any party to attain a decisive advantage last weekend will see a run-off election take place on 28 May.
Should Kilicdaroglu fail to drum up momentum to advance his current 44.9% share of the vote, Turkish equities could be…