Domestic investors dominate Borsa Istanbul

During the first quarter of 2019, Borsa Istanbul added 178,000 new domestic investors, a significant increase in all indexes.

Comparatively, only 396 foreign investors showed interest in Turkey’s stock exchange, according to Central Registry Agency (MKK) and Investor Relations Association (TUYID) data.

Some 357 companies are traded on Borsa Istanbul’s BIST All index. The index posted a record high after increasing its trade volume by 117 percent in Q1 2020 compared to the same quarter of previous year. On a USD basis, the volume increased by 78 percent, reaching $172.2 billion while in TRY, it doubled to over one trillion.

The banking index volume, the sole index posting a decline, fell four percent to TRY 146.7 billion while the technology index saw a 229 percent surge reaching TRY 85.9 billion. The holding and investment index grew by 227 percent, increasing to TRY 105.8 billion. The trade index volume rose by 213 percent while the services industry index posted 128 percent growth; industry and finance indices showed an increase of 101 percent and 69 percent, respectively.

The number of local investors in Borsa Istanbul reached 1,337,214 in the first quarter whereas the number of foreign investors stalled at 10,144 at the end of March. Domestic investors thus represent 99.2 percent of investors in Borsa Istanbul. However, the number of foreign investors increased slightly in all indices other than BIST 100. The increase in BIST All was a mere 396, 207 in BIST 30 and 225 in BIST 50. The BIST 100, meanwhile, lost a record 1,542 foreign investors though it still has the largest number of foreign investors among all the indices, at 7,358.

BIST All index observed 178,272 new domestic investors in the first quarter of this year. BIST Finance index attracted a hefty 146,842 of those investors, according to Borsa Istanbul data.