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Istanbul shares lose 2 pc

amid political worries

ISTANBUL: Shares on Istanbul's stock exchange slightly extended losses in subdued afternoon trade on Thursday as the market tensely awaited a party meeting on the future of the ruling conservative coalition, brokers said.

Former prime minister and True Path Party (DYP) leader Tansu Ciller entered a meeting with her aides to assess their future role in the coalition after parliament voted late on Wednesday to investigate allegations of corruption against her.

Political concerns mounted after the parliament approved an inquiry into alleged links between Ciller and contract irregularities at state-run electricity distributor TEDAS.

Some MPs from Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz's Motherland Party (ANAP) also voted in favour of the inquiry, raising uncertainty over the future of the ANAP-DYP coalition formed in March.

The IMKB-100 .ISECclosed at 64,631.23, down 1,381.97 points, or 2.09 percent from Wednesday when it gained 2.9 percent on hopes ahead of the parliamentary debate that the vote would not harm the coalition.

"The market waited for the results of the DYP meeting all afternoon. It won't have a major impact unless a very negative decision emerges. But if the result is negative, then the index may fall towards 60,000 in coming days," said one dealer.

The meeting which started at around 1000 GMT has not yet ended.

Turkish markets will close for a 4-1/2 day religious holiday on Friday and reopen on May 2. Today's transactions will be settled on May 2 and Friday's on May 3 after the holiday.

Daily volume rose to 7.55 trillion lira from Wednesday's 6.77 trillion due to wide fluctuations in early trade.

Political fears prompted panic sales in the first five minutes of trade, causing the index to plunge to a low of 63,073. It later recouped some of its losses on reaction buys to end the morning session at 64,810.35.

Of the 217 shares traded, losers sharply outdid gainers by 170 to 34 and 13 were unchanged. The 87-share industrial index .ISEI lost 1.23 percent to 71,712.80 while the 13-share financial index .ISEFtumbled 4.86 percent to 55,702.93.

Top actives were utility Cukurova Elektrik, up 500 lira at 42,00 and its associate Kepez Elektrik, down 1,000 lira at 56,000.-Reuter