Turkey and Singapore are not commonly known to have many similarities, culturally or economically,  however the two nations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Thursday to foster mutual cooperation towards the development of both exchanges and their respective markets.

Singapore, one of Asia’s most established markets has been linking its capabilities with other stock exchanges in the region. It signed an agreement with Malaysia’s Bursa Malaysia.

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Singapore’s STI is trading at 3,016.75 and Turkey’s ISE 100 is trading at 67,582.

The two exchanges say the tie-up will mandate collaboration on investment opportunities within their respective markets, as well as knowledge transfer, sharing of information, and ensuring on best practices.

The move comes after Singapore giant Phillip Capital acquired local Turkish broker HAK MENKUL KIYMETLER A.Ş.after the countries financial regulator opened up the FX markets under its supervision.

The regulator has introduced certain restrictions which have affected how people trade, leverage has been limited to 100 to 1 and only regulated brokers either as dealer or introducer can deal with Turkish residents. Currently Phillip Capital, Saxo Bank and XTB are the main international brokers operating in the Turkish market.

Turkey has a developed capital markets with equities, bonds and futures and options traded on exchange. Turkdex, the derivatives exchange has been strengthening YoY, its current daily volume is around $2 billion.

Turkey will be one the many countries discussed at the much awaited Forex Magnates Summit 2012.