Turkish stocks dive in May amid political upheaval

Turkish equities dived more than 8% in May, in their worst monthly performance since early 2014 as jittery investors fled the country's political turmoil for safer investments elsewhere.

At 15:42 BST, Turkey's Borsa Istanbul (BIST) 100 Index was down 8.28% for the month of May, while the BIST 30 Index was 8.29% lower.

Over the same period and by contrast, the S&P Europe 350 Index was up 2.04%, while the FTSE All-Share Index had gained 0.74%.

The slump comes against a backcloth of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, moving to tighten his grasp on power, Bloomberg reported.

Investors tended dumped Turkey-quoted stocks as a political showdown with Erdogan saw prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu step down on 22 May.

Davutoglu's replacement, Binali Yildirim, is supporting Erdogan's move to centralise power in Turkey's presidency.

At 15:50 BST, the US dollar was 0.16% lower and fetching 2.9496 Turkish lira.