The Capital
Markets Board of Turkey has introduced its Amendment on the Communiqué on Market
Abuse Serial No. VI-104.1.a, which was published on 18 February 2017 in the
Official Gazette numbered 29983 (the “Amendment”).
In the Amendment, Article 6 (Market Abuse
Actions through Communication or Correspondence) and Article 8 (Actions Which Are Not Deemed as Market Abuse
Actions) of the Communiqué on Market Abuse VI-104.1(the “Communiqué”) are amended.
In the
original version of paragraph 1 of Article 6 of the Communiqué; to give
false, wrong or misleading information, rumor, inform, make material public
disclosures, make comments or prepare reports in such manner to affect the
prices, values of capital market instruments or the decisions of investors, or
with respect to market indicators that may affect them used to be considered
and treated as market abuse action. However with the Amendment, the
abovementioned actions shall be considered and treated as market abuse action, if the persons who realised the said actions, gave
any kind of order or made any kind of transaction with respect to the related
capital market instrument before or after realising the related action.
With the
Amendment, the same rule applies to paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Communiqué.
Now, spreading of the information referred to in the first paragraph by the
persons who know or are required to know that they are false, wrong or misleading
shall be deemed as a market abuse action, only if the persons who realised the
aforementioned actions gave any kind of order or made any kind of transaction
with respect to the related capital market instrument before or after realising
the related action.
The
Amendment has also clarified the wording of the article regarding the actions
which shall not be deemed as actions causing market abuse. In addition, the
Amendment has extended the exception related to the actions by the press and clarified
that the actions which are not within the scope of Article 104 of the Capital
Market Law No 6362, shall not be deemed as market abuse actions. In brief, Article
104 of the Capital Market Law No 6362 provides that actions and transactions
which cannot be explained with a reasonable economic or financial
justification, which are deteriorating the functioning of exchange markets and
other organized markets in security, openness and stability shall be deemed as
market abuse actions, provided that they do not constitute a criminal
liability.