Turkey Wake-up call: Macro, Political and Equity News, 15th February

BIST lost 2.39% yesterday after a day entirely spent in the negative zone as the tensions between Russia and Ukraine continued to weigh on the sentiment for global markets. Banks lost 1.52% on average amid relative resilience in YKBNK and GARAN. ASELS, KOZAL, ALARK, ISGYO, and AYDEM stood out among the rare gainers in the BIST100 space while ENKAI, EREGL, KRDMD, ARCLK, SISE, TOASO, NTHOL, DOAS, KORDS, and BRISA topped the decliners. Today, our local macro agenda showcases January'22 central government budget numbers due at 11AM local time. Separately, Treasury will reissue 11-month discount bills and offer 2-year sukuk papers via a direct sale. Domestic redemptions for the week total TL3.21bn (on top of some TL5.72bn in cumulative redemptions during the past two weeks during which no auctions had been held) while the Treasury has already raised TL20.30bn in double auctions yesterday. We predict a slightly negative start for the BIST given mixed signals from international peers. U.S. futures are down a few points in partial reversal of the 0.2-0.4% overnight gains after we left while Asian stock indices are moving in different directions. Eyes will continue to be on any newsflow related to the developments in Ukraine.