Borsa Istanbul indices, where downward trends were prominent in the last quarter, are experiencing a negative trend in the last week of 2023. With the increase in investment instruments, especially standard TRY deposits, which provide risk-free returns, the number of investors exiting the stock market accelerated and exceeded 590,000 in the last two days.
In the indices, which suffered losses throughout December, it has been seen in the last two weeks that the stock market is not deep enough, as what happened in the shares of a major company turned all indices upside down, while yesterday’s sharp sales in the banking index, which tried to survive as the last bastion, further deteriorated the morale in the market.
At the beginning of the month, the return on the BIST100 index for the whole year reached 50 percent, while it fell to 30 percent as of yesterday. While weekly losses in indices reached the monthly deposit interest return, experts urged individual investors to ‘stay on the sidelines’ in such periods. All these events led to a sharp decline in the number of investors, which broke a record with 8.6 million. While 590,000 investors left the stock market in the last two days, the number of investors fell below 8 million, while the loss of investors reached 706 thousand compared to December 13, when the record was broken.
Banks lost 7.55 percent this week
Borsa Istanbul’s BIST100 index closed the day yesterday at 7260 points with a loss of 0.53 percent. The loss in the index this month exceeded 8.6 percent, while this week’s loss reached 4 percent. The banking index, which was sold hard yesterday, closed the day down 2.64 percent. This month’s return on the banking index fell to 1.5 percent, while the weekly loss was about 7.55 percent. Like the banking index, the decline in the holdings index, where foreigners are expected to enter, exceeded 9 percent in December, while this week’s loss approached 4 percent. While these losses were experienced in Borsa Istanbul, standard TRY deposit interest rates reached 47-50 percent and weekly losses in the stock market exceeded the monthly return of TRY deposits.
Margin calls exceeded TRY 4 billion in December
The acceleration of losses led to an increase in margin calls, and the increased margin calls resulted in sharpening of sales. In such a cycle, margin calls throughout December exceeded TRY 4 billion, while margin calls in the last two days amounted to TRY 742.9 million. Experts pointed out that the clearing of margin calls may create a relief in stock market indices, but this will also be short-term.
Technically, the 7000 level is an important support, but the experts who said that those who bought when the BIST100 index was at 7800 were at a great loss, noted that an upward movement can be expected again at the point where the margin calls are reduced, but this will not be very strong.
