Gold Crushes Dollar and Stocks in Turkey’s First May Week

The first week of May delivered a clear verdict for Turkish investors: not all safe havens are created equal. Gold topped the weekly performance charts, outpacing the dollar, euro, and Borsa Istanbul in local currency returns. The data puts a number on what many investors have sensed — the rush into hard assets is accelerating, not slowing down.

The dollar and euro posted modest gains against the Turkish lira, but neither came close to matching gold's weekly return. Borsa Istanbul, which has had a volatile spring, struggled to keep pace as global risk appetite wavered and domestic inflation expectations remained sticky. For anyone holding a mixed portfolio, the composition of that portfolio this week made a significant difference to their bottom line.

This snapshot matters beyond the weekly scorecard. When gold consistently outperforms currency and equity positions over short windows, it signals that investors — both retail and institutional — are pricing in uncertainty rather than growth. Turkey enters the second week of May with that message written clearly across the asset class rankings. The question now is whether this rotation into gold reflects a temporary flight to safety or the early stages of a more sustained repositioning away from lira-denominated and equity risk.

Ekonomik Gündem Analysis: Ekonomik Gündem Analysis: I spent 15 years watching Turkish retail investors chase last week's winner, and gold topping the weekly table will bring a fresh wave of buyers into the Grand Bazaar and online gold platforms this week. That's human nature. But the more important signal here is the relative underperformance of Borsa Istanbul at a time when the index should theoretically be benefiting from any lira stability.

From a portfolio construction standpoint, the dollar and euro gains against the lira were marginal — likely in the 0.3–0.8% range for the week — which means FX deposits barely covered inflation erosion for the period. Gold, by contrast, benefits from both its global dollar-price momentum and any lira weakness simultaneously, giving it a double engine that FX deposits lack.

For small business owners managing cash reserves, this weekly data reinforces a practical truth: keeping idle liquidity in a single instrument is increasingly costly. A split between short-term TRY deposits, a gold position, and selective Borsa exposure has outperformed any single-asset approach through most of 2024–2025.

Watch whether Borsa Istanbul can reclaim leadership in week two of May. If gold wins a second consecutive week, the institutional rotation signal becomes much harder to ignore.

Kaynak: Ekonomim