Number of Borsa Istanbul investors up to 2.4 million

ISTANBUL

The number of investors in Borsa Istanbul has increased from 1.9 million to 2.4 million in the last year, according to the head of the Capital Markets Board (SPK).

The annual trade volume of the stock exchange has increased from 6 trillion Turkish Liras ($410 billion) to 7.3 trillion liras ($500 billion), Ali Fuat Taşkesenlioğlu said, noting that the inclusiveness of the stock markets has increased significantly this year with 52 public offerings, the total size of which reached 21.6 billion liras ($1.5 billion).

“Although we have achieved a high momentum, it is clear that the vast majority of the first 1,000 industrial and service companies are still far from the stock market and our market capitalization/national income ratio is low compared to our peers,” Taşkesenlioğlu said at a congress of the Turkish Capital Markets Association (TSPB) on Dec. 14.

“It is clear that we need to take bigger steps in order to bring the equity market to the level it deserves,” he added.

The Turkish stock exchange has made significant progress this year in terms of public offerings, investor figures and trading volumes, Borsa Istanbul CEO Korkmaz Ergun said.

“We have updated the sustainability index. We have started calculating participation indices and gold denominated indices,” Ergun stated.

“We are expecting the portfolio management company to establish funds based on these indices,” he added.

Borsa Istanbul’s benchmark stock index hit a new record of 2,157.74 points at the close on Dec. 14, climbing 2.68 percent from the previous close. Yesterday morning, the index opened at 2,190.61 points, up by 1.52 percent from the previous close.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 1.7 trillion liras ($120.9 billion) by market close on Dec. 14, with a daily trading volume of approximately 54.5 billion liras ($3.8 billion).

The highest trading volumes were posted by private lender Garanti, petrochemical firm Petkim and national flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

TSPB head İbrahim Öztop said that the association would organize events, training and certification programs on sustainability, public listings, digital transformation and entrepreneurship.

“Some 8 billion liras have been provided to new ventures through 88 venture capital investment funds managed by 21 portfolio management companies,” he said.

“Integrating entrepreneurship ecosystem with capital markets is among our prioritized works agenda,” he added.

TSPB is also planning to deploy innovative capital markets financing products related to environmental and social problems, particularly those caused by climate change, according to Öztop’s remarks.

Foreign investors have purchased $1 billion of Turkish equities in the last three months, mainly due to prices at their lowest level in dollar terms since 2009.

“When the currency is weak and rates are low, stocks stand out as pretty much one of the few attractive asset classes left to protect savings for locals, especially those who may be thinking they’re late to catch the FX rally,” Burak İşyar, the head of equity research at ICBC Turkey Investment, told Bloomberg recently.