Relax

On Wednesday August 15th a number of events were celebrated: some 44 countries celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of Mary commemorating the assumption of Mary into heaven while over 1.2 billion people celebrated India’s 72nd Independence Day. Another annual event celebrated on August 15th is ‘National Relaxation Day’ founded by nine-year-old Sean Moeller back in 1985 to remind people to slow down and relax.

Relaxation Day is all about winding down and just taking it easy. According to scientists one can do simple things to destress and relax: chewing gum, proven to lower cortisol and improve reported mood; blowing up a balloon, will help you refocus on your breathing; mowing the lawn, research shows that a chemical released by a mowed lawn—that fresh-cut grass smell—makes people feel happy and relaxed; Eating chocolate, helpful at releasing endorphins; Eating a banana, potassium helps your body regulate blood pressure and keeping it under control should help you recover more quickly from what’s got you stressed… And the list goes on.

Up until last Thursday, based on the evolution of the Turkish Lira, it seemed as if currency traders took the above “destress” relaxing tips to heart. The Turkish lira rallied more than 10% and recovered part of its 2018 loss as leading Turkish companies called on the Turkish government to tighten monetary policy, and to urgently resolve the dispute with the US and the pledge of Qatar to invest some 15 billion dollars. More importantly, Investors also seemed to put things more in perspective, finding solace in the fact that the Turkish economy plays only a minor role on the world stage economy (Turkey accounts for about 1% of global GDP). However, on Friday the Turkish Lira lost some of its recovered ground after a U.S. warning that Turkey should expect more economic sanctions unless it hands over the detained American evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson. Since the start of the year, the lira has declined some 38 percent against the dollar, driven by worries over the economic policy and the repeated calls for lower interest rates despite high inflation. But in spite of this added uncertainty surrounding Turkey, mixed economic data and a quite uneventful results season, equity markets so far this summer have been holding up better than one might have expected, however US equities (DOW Jones +4% and Nasdaq +15%) are clearly outperforming European equities (Eurostoxx 50: -4%) so far in 2018.

In a once again volatile trading week the Ageas share closed at EUR 44.56 (-1.6%) in line with the Eurostoxx 50 (-1.6%).