Turkey fines brokerage houses, investors for violating short selling ban

Photo: AA

Turkey's financial regulatory agency has imposed a fine of 16.7 million Turkish lira (2.4 million USD) on seven brokerage houses and 18 investors who were violating the short selling ban.

The Capital Markets Board of Turkey (SPK) said in a statement yesterday (July 13) that the accused created closed groups on social media platforms such as Telegram, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp and victimized buyers.

Starting from today, the ban will remain in force for six months.

The board stressed it constantly monitored and controlled the transactions taking place in the market in order to ensure safe investment.

Last week, Borsa İstanbul, the sole stock exchange entity of the country, announced that it banned six international institutions from short selling the shares listed on the benchmark stock exchange after failing to comply with a requirement to notify the authorities about such trades.

It said the ban will be valid for Barclays, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch for three months, and Goldman, JPMorgan, Wood and Company for a month.

Short selling occurs when an investor borrows a stock and sells it on the open market, planning to buy it back later for less money.

Traders may use short selling as speculation, and investors or portfolio managers may use it as a hedge against the downside risk of a long position in the same stock or a related one. (VK)