Turkey Wake-up call: Macro, Political and Equity News, 26th April

BIST climbed 1.10% on Thursday before Friday's national holiday, but still ended the week with a cumulative 4.47% loss. After a weak start and test of the 1,309 level in early hours, BIST100 index turned north and ended the day at its intraday peak, a 35-point rebound from its low. Banks slightly underperformed with a 0.85% gain in their sector index amid weakness in AKBNK. THYAO, PGSUS, ARCLK, VESTL, KOZAL, TCELL, and OTKAR led the non-bank gainers while PETKM, AKSEN, MPARK, TRGYO, AKSA, and NTHOL were among the weaker spots. Today, our local macro agenda involves April'21 Manufacturing Capacity Utilization Rate (CUR stood at 74.7% in March'21 and was 61.6% back in April'20) and April'21 Real Sector Confidence index (was at a 35-month peak of 110.8 in March'21 and had stood at a then-11-year-low of 66.8 back in April'20) both to be released at 10AM local time. Separately, President Erdogan will chair the cabinet meeting starting at 3:30PM local time. Agenda includes possible extension of pandemic restrictions and lockdowns until after the Eid holiday in mid-May, according to media reports. BIST seems off to a negative start given weakness in lira (USDTRY around the 8.45 mark vs 8.2931 at Thursday's closing bell) and the tensions between Ankara & Washington following President Biden's declaration on Saturday that the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide. U.S. futures are almost unchanged while Asian markets are mostly trading in the green.