Turkey Wake-up call: Macro, Political and Equity News, 22th November

BIST eked out a 0.03% gain on Friday despite the profit-taking in banks, carrying its weekly gains to 6.03%. BIST100 index opened higher and tested the 1,760 resistance in early hours of Friday before turning south and retreating to 1,728 in late afternoon. A rebound in the last 1.5 hours of the session carried the index to a flattish close. Banks lost 1.01% on average amid weakness in GARAN and YKBNK. KRDMD, HEKTS, DOHOL, ENJSA, AKSA, GOZDE, KARSN, and DEVA led the non-bank gainers while aviation stocks, ENKAI, TUPRS, KCHOL, and TTKOM were among the weaker names. Today, our local macro agenda showcases November'21 Consumer Confidence Index compiled by TurkStat due at 10AM local time. In the revised series, the index had retreated 3.6% on a sequential basis to an all-time-low of 76.8 in October. Separately, Ministry of Tourism will disclose the tourist arrival numbers for October'21 at 11AM. Foreign tourist arrivals had jumped 59.5% yoy to 3.51mn in September as the pandemic-related base effects were in play, bringing the cumulative yearly arrivals to 17.58mn visitors, up 85.9% from the corresponding period of 2020. We predict a sideways start for the BIST in absence of major triggers in either direction. S&P futures are up c.0.2% in early trades while Asian bourses present a mixed picture. Lira is a tad stronger with the USDTRY pair around the 11.13 mark vs 11.1685 at Friday's closing bell.