Borsa Istanbul continues to be a favourite among investors

Borsa Istanbul (BIST), which continued to receive investment after the elections in Türkiye in May, earned more than 50 percent for its investors between June and September.

Although the period before the elections caused some uncertainty in the markets, leading to a slight decline in Borsa Istanbul compared to January 2023, it started to rise immediately after the results were announced.

BIST, which had closed on June 1, 2023 at 4,959.80 points, closed on September 1, 2023 at 7,966.65 points, earning more than 50 percent for its investors in the three-month period in between. This was the first time since 1997 that investors made profits for 3 consecutive months.

Borsa Istanbul, which continued its upward trend after this period, reached its peak with 8,403.81 points as well as its highest closing till date on September 7, when it closed on 8337.67 points.

While the trading volume of the BIST 100 index was 224.9 billion liras (8.4 billion dollars) on August 24, the average daily trading volume of the index in the summer months was 120 billion liras (4.4 billion dollars) .

Record number of investors

As of September 11, 2023 the number of investors with balances in Turkish equity markets broke records by exceeding 7 million 140 thousand.

The annual increase in the number of investors with equity balances exceeded 4.5 million as of September 11, while the number of investors rose by 173 percent.

On a monthly basis, the bourse added more than 1.978 million investors, while those with stock balances rose by 38.33 percent, also on a monthly basis.

In Borsa Istanbul, where a total of 41 companies started to be traded in the markets as public offerings in 2022, 36 companies went public in between January 1, 2023 and September 15, 2023, while one more company received approval for public offering on September 14.

While 54 more companies are awaiting the day when they can go public and start trading in the markets, there are 627 companies that traded on BIST.

Risk appetite increased in global equity markets

Fluctuations in commodity prices due to the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war and growing concerns over the Chinese economy — one of the world's largest product suppliers — caused investors to act cautiously.

Hikes in policy rates by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to its highest level in the last 22 years, and the European Central Bank (ECB) to its highest level in the last 15 years, led to concerns about recession in the global economy.

With these developments, the S&P 500 index has risen 17 percent points, while Dow Jones saw a rise by 4.5 percent on the New York Stock Exchange this year. Higher-than-expected profits by technology companies led the Nasdaq index to rise by 34 percent points, which was more than other US indices.

In the European stock markets, the FTSE 100 index fell 1 percent on an annual basis, while Germany’s DAX 40 index rose by 12.7 percent, and France’s CAC 40 index rose by 11 percent.

Since the beginning of 2023, the Nikkei 225 index in Japan has increased by 27.4 percent, the Kospi index in South Korea by 14.6 percent and India’s Sensex by 7.7 percent, while the Shanghai Composite index in China, where a slowdown in the economy is projected, gained 2.2 percent.