Survey: How Are Market Professionals Positioning Themselves Amidst Uncertainty?

The results of the October Market Professionals Survey (PPA) conducted by Spinn Consulting reveal that increasing uncertainty is forcing investors into a neutral stance. According to the views of the 108 market professionals participating in the survey, recent losses in domestic equities are prompting investors to reposition themselves. The BIST 100 index's consecutive four-month pullback has encouraged some recommendations for increasing weight, despite its volatile nature. The recommendation for increasing weight decreased from 61.2% in September to 58.3%, while the recommendation for significantly increasing weight rose from 8.2% to 13.9%.

The survey results indicate that uncertainty may decrease following the U.S. presidential elections in November, while factors such as geopolitical risks, Federal Reserve policies, domestic market inflation uncertainties, and potential monetary policy measures are likely to be decisive for equities. Additionally, to the question posed to participants about whether the political agenda will further lower the BIST 100, 52.8% responded with "No."

Trends in TL and foreign currency instruments Among TL-based instruments, deposits remained prominent with a recommendation to stay neutral in October as in the past three months, although this rate dropped from 55.1% to 48.1%. Conversely, recommendations for reducing and significantly reducing weight increased by a total of 5.9 points, reaching 22.2%. A similar neutral stance was observed in both short and long-term domestic government bonds, although there was a significant increase in recommendations to reduce weight.

In foreign currency-based instruments, recommendations regarding foreign equities changed to a neutral stance, reflecting a risk-averse trend in October. At the same time, dollar/TL, foreign currency deposits, gold, and eurobonds emerged as the asset classes with the highest neutral recommendations. However, recommendations to reduce weight for each of these asset classes showed an increase of over 5 points. The results regarding portfolio allocation reveal that the weight of domestic equities has increased, while the weights of gold and short-term debt instruments have decreased.