Turkey Wake-up call: Macro, Political and Equity News, 16th November

BIST resumed its recent rally with a 1.54% gain on Friday after a one-day breather and carried its weekly ascent to 8.33%. Banking index was up 2.04% for the day with YKBNK and GARAN taking the lead. FROTO, KRDMD, CCOLA, ENJSA, MAVI, MPARK, AKGRT, OTKAR, TTRAK, and BIZIM topped the non-bank gainers while PGSUS, THYAO, EREGL, TUPRS, ODAS, VESTL, BRISA, and GOODY were among the rare decliners. Coming to start of the new week, our local macro agenda showcases October'20 central government budget numbers due at 11AM local time. Separately, TurkStat will release the residential sales data for October'20 at 10AM. Home sales had dropped 6.9% yoy to 137k units in September as the previous three month's frenzy on favourable mortgage rates started to fade away amid rising interest rates that led to a 38.5% decline in mortgage-backed transactions. BIST is off to a positive start given better sentiment in global markets on hopes that major lock-downs will be averted despite the surge in coronavirus infections globally. S&P futures are up almost 0.9% in early trades on top of the c.0.6% overnight gains in main indices after the hour we left and Asian markets are all trading in the green. Lira is stable with USDTRY around the 7.66 mark as investors hold their breath for Thursday's pivotal MPC meeting.