Turkey Wake-up call: Macro, Political and Equity News, 10th February

BIST climbed 1.78% yesterday in its third consecutive day of gains as the upbeat sentiment abroad and foreign inflows to some blue-chip Turkish names propped up the BIST100 index. Banks gained 1.26% on average as AKBNK and ISCTR caught some bids while GARAN fell behind peers. Strength in non-financial names like EREGL, KRDMD, TOASO, THYAO, PGSUS, AEFES, ENJSA, TRGYO, and BRISA drove the broader market up while ENKAI, TKFEN, SOKM, GUBRF, GOZDE, and ARDYZ stood out among the fewer decliners. Today, our local macro agenda involves the unemployment statistics for December'21 to be released at 10AM local time. Seasonally-adjusted unemployment had remained unchanged from a month ago to 11.2% in November as the 228k monthly increase in the number of employed had made up for the 267k climb in labour force (labour force participation was sequentially up 0.4pp to 52.5%). We foresee a flattish open for the BIST amid conflicting signals from global markets ahead of the U.S. inflation data this afternoon. U.S. futures are down about 0.2% in early trades and Asian bourses present a mixed picture.