Turkish shares rise after Iran ceasefire deal, lira set for rare daily gain

Pegasus Hava Tasimaciligi

08/04/2026 09:24

ISTANBUL, April 8 (Reuters) - Banking and airline stocks led a more than 4% rise in Turkish shares and the lira was on track for a rare daily gain on Wednesday, as the two-week Middle East ceasefire sparked a relief rally across global markets.

At 0823 GMT, Turkey's blue-chip BIST 100 index .XU100 was up 4.3%, while the banking index .XBANK rose 8.8%. Shares in airline carriers Turkish Airlines THYAO.IS and Pegasus PGSUS.IS climbed more than 6% each.

The United States and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a post on X that he had invited Iranian and U.S. delegations to meet in Islamabad on Friday.

The lira TRYTOM=D3 traded at 44.5400 against the dollar, strengthening from Tuesday's close of 44.6065.

The currency had lost about 1.5% in value since the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began at the end of February. With a year‑to‑date loss of 3.6% and inflation reaching to 10% in the first three months of the year, the lira has gained in real terms.

Before the two-week ceasefire agreement, economists had been expecting the central bank to reflect a cumulative 300 basis points of tightening delivered via liquidity measures in the main policy rate, which stands at 37%.

Markets are now watching whether the two-week ceasefire evolves into a more permanent arrangement, which could reshape expectations for policy tightening at the central bank's next monetary policy committee meeting on April 22.

(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu, Writing by Mirac Eren Dereli; Editing by Daren Butler)

((miraceren.dereli@thomsonreuters.com;))