Turkey Wake-up call: Macro, Political and Equity News, 28th March

BIST slipped 0.03% on Friday as morning gains totally fizzled out in afternoon selling, but the index was still up 1.46% for the week. Banks were the main culprit with the 0.86% retreat in their index amid reports of a government proposal to the Parliament to hike the corporate tax rate for financial companies to 25%. GARAN held up better while AKBNK and ISCTR were weaker spots. AKSA, HEKTS, AGHOL, LOGO, KARSN, ODAS, SELEC, and TURSG topped the non-bank gainers among BIST100 constituents while FROTO, MGROS, MAVI, OYAKC, CIMSA, VESTL, and KOZAA stood out among the weak spots. Coming to the start of the new week, our local macro agenda for the day is rather muted while on the political front, President Erdogan will chair the cabinet meeting starting at 3PM local time and he is expected to make a public statement afterwards. We predict a downtick open for the BIST as the rout in global bond markets seems to be hurting the appetite for equities. S&P futures are down almost 0.4% in early trades and Asian bourses are mostly trading in the red.