Turkey Wake-up call: Macro, Political and Equity News, 14th April

BIST retreated 0.14% yesterday on profit-taking in its first, albeit small loss after four consecutive days of decent gains. Banks were weaker compared to the broader market with the 1.57% drop in their sector index while YKBNK and GARAN held up relatively better than peers. Koza Group names, TTKOM, EREGL, HEKTS, MAVI, DEVA, SELEC, and TURSG topped the non-bank gainers for the day while KCHOL, ENKAI, TAVHL, VESTL, VESBE, ISGYO, KARSN, AGHOL, and GWIND stood out among the weakest of non-banks. Today, our key macro agenda item will be the monthly Monetary Policy Council meeting today with the decision on policy rates due 2PM local time. Participants in the Bloomberg survey unanimously expect the MPC to keep its benchmark weekly repo rate unchanged at 14.00% for the fourth consecutive month after cumulative cuts of 500bps in the preceding four months. BIST seems off to a slight positive open on the back of the more supportive sentiment in global markets this morning. U.S. futures are up about 0.2% in early trades on top of the 0.6-0.8% overnight gains after we left and Asian equity benchmarks are all trading in the green.