Turkey Wake-up call: Macro, Political and Equity News, 18th January

BIST climbed another 0.62% yesterday in the 11th consecutive day of its uninterrupted ascent since the beginning of the new year. It was a day totally spent in the positive territory for the benchmark BIST100 index although some of the earlier gains were pared back after 3:30PM in profit taking. Banks took the lead with the 2.70% jump in their sector index as they played some catch up with industrials. Koza Group companies, REITs, ENKAI, BIMAS, SOKM, ALARK, NTHOL, and SELEC led the non-bank gainers while steelmakers, FROTO, TOASO, SISE, INDES, and CCOLA stood out among the fewer decliners in the BIST100 space. Today, our local macro agenda is rather muted. We anticipate a downtick start for the BIST given the sour sentiment abroad amid rising U.S. Treasury yields and higher crude oil prices. S&P futures are down 0.5% in early trades and Asian bourses are mostly trading in the red. Lira is a tad weaker with the USDTRY around the 13.46 mark vs 13.4345 at yesterday's BIST closing bell.