Amid political strife and a tumbling lira, Turkish stocks, along with related country-specific exchange traded fund, appear inexpensive with financial firms falling below book value for the first time in five years.
The iShares MSCI Turkey ETF (NYSEArca: TUR) has 40.1% over the past year. TUR’s holdings are trading at a price-to-prospective earnings of 8.4. The financial stocks make up the largest portion of TUR, accounting for 45.1% of the ETF’s weight. [Positive Technical News for the Turkey ETF]
Turkish banks in the country’s 16-company bank index fell to 0.98, the first time the ratio was below 1 since the first quarter of 2009, reports Isobel Finkel for Bloomberg.
“We think that current valuations offer attractive levels for bottom fishing, especially for banks,” Hasan Demir, an analyst at Tera Brokers, said in the article, pointing to valuations at the lowest levels since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
After Turkey’s central bank hiked up its one-week repo rate to 10% from 4.5% in an emergency meeting this week, BlackRock believes investor will feel more confident in Turkish banks.
“We are overweight Turkey, principally through financial stocks,” Sam Vecht, a BlackRock portfolio manager, said in the article.