Garanti Has Biggest Weekly Loss in 8 as Goldman Says Sell

Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS (GARAN), Turkey’s biggest listed lender, had the biggest weekly drop in eight as traders said U.S.-based funds may be selling the stock after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. added the bank to its “focus sell” list on Oct. 3.

Garanti fell 14 kurus, or 2.1 percent, to 6.52 liras at 5:30 p.m. in Istanbul, taking losses this week to 10 percent. The share rose 16 percent last month.

“Along with the Goldman Sachs sell report, I guess one of the big funds is massively selling,” Ata Doganoglu, a trader at Ekspres Invest in Istanbul, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “I think U.S. funds are going underweight.”

Garanti has lost 30 percent since reaching a record high of 9.38 liras in November 2010.

Garanti is “exposed to deteriorating banking dynamics should Turkish economic growth turn to a recession, an outcome that Goldman economists are now assigning a relatively high probability,” the e-mailed report issued by Goldman’s equity research division said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul at bharvey11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Bentley at mbentley3@bloomberg.net