It has been 38 years since stocks began trading on the stock exchange

The stock exchange, which began trading as İMKB, took on a different structure with the Capital Markets Law that changed in 2013 and has continued its development in recent years with its evolving technology and many new instruments.

Officially opened in December 1985, the İMKB began trading with 19 stocks in its building in Cağaloğlu on January 3, 1986.

In 1987, stock exchange indices, which were previously calculated weekly, began to be calculated daily. In 1993, computerized trading was introduced with 50 companies. In late 1993, the İMKB was defined as a "recognized stock exchange" by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The İMKB was the third among emerging market exchanges to receive this title.

Following the establishment of the International Bond and Bill Market within the International Market in 1996, trading began in 1997 with the listing of 40 international bonds issued by the Treasury for sale abroad. Thus, a different channel was opened for the Treasury's access to foreign financing.

In 2000, the İMKB became a partner in the Kyrgyz Stock Exchange with a 27.4 percent stake and in the Baku Stock Exchange with a 5.26 percent stake.

In 2004, the Exchange Traded Fund Market was established to ensure that participation certificates were traded in an organized and transparent market, and in the following year, Exchange Traded Funds began trading in the Stock Market Fund Market.

In 2007, an opening session application was introduced in the Stock Market, and towards the end of the year, the session closing time was extended to 17:00. In May 2009, the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) was launched, taking an important step toward transparent and timely market disclosure.

Warrants, which are in the structured products class and carry the characteristics of securitized options, began trading on the exchange in 2010.

In 2011, the establishment of the Interbank Repo-Reverse Repo Market paved the way for banks to resolve their liquidity problems among themselves. In the Futures and Options Market (VİOP), which began operating within the İMKB in 2012, the trading volume exceeded 5 billion liras on average in 2019 and 90 billion liras in 2023.

TLREF began to be used in asset pricing

On April 5, 2013, the İMKB transformed into Borsa Istanbul AŞ, a business operating under private law provisions. The abbreviation "İMKB" in index names was changed to "BIST".

In the same year, the start of the first session of the equity market was moved forward by 15 minutes to 09:15. In 2014, Dollar/TL Option Contracts were opened for trading in VİOP.

On November 30, 2015, the first phase of BISTECH, developed within the scope of the partnership between Borsa Istanbul and Nasdaq, was launched. In the first phase of the Technology Transformation Program, which consists of two stages called BISTECH, Borsa Istanbul switched from the two-session application it had implemented for 22 years to a single-session application.

Borsa Istanbul AŞ and its subsidiary Istanbul Settlement and Custody Bank AŞ completed the work on the establishment of the Swap Market in September 2018. In the Swap Market, where banks authorized to trade in accordance with exchange regulations and the CBRT can conduct transactions, TL-dollar and TL-euro transactions reached a daily trading volume of 3 billion dollars in 2019.

On June 17, 2019, Borsa Istanbul began calculating and publishing the TLREF Turkish Lira Overnight Reference Interest Rate as a variable interest rate indicator for financial derivative products, debt instruments, and various financial contracts. TLREF, created to meet the need for a Turkish lira short-term reference interest rate, is also intended to be used as an underlying asset or benchmark.

As of October 4, 2019, a transition was made to a continuous trading method between 10:00 and 18:00 at Borsa Istanbul to ensure harmony with world stock exchanges and increase interaction. Accordingly, the "mid-day single price" and mid-day "break" sections applied between 13:00 and 14:00 for securities traded with the continuous trading method in the equity market were removed.

In the final days of 2019, the Turkey Wealth Fund purchased the 10 percent stake belonging to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), increasing its partnership share in Borsa Istanbul to 90.6 percent. In the final situation, the other partners of Borsa Istanbul were the Turkish Capital Markets Association (TSPB) with 1.3 percent, Borsa Istanbul AŞ with 2.27 percent, and brokerage houses, banks, precious metals and foreign exchange companies, and other companies under the name "others" with 5.83 percent.

In 2022, the Sustainability 25 index, the Participation Dividend index, and the TLREFK Turkish Lira Overnight Participation Reference Return Rate, created to meet the need for a Turkish lira short-term reference return rate, began to be calculated.

Changes were also made to the opening and closing hours of VİOP. Accordingly, as of May 6, 2022, a step was taken to prevent volatility at the opening by collecting orders between 09:20-09:25 and matching them between 09:25-09:30 in VİOP. The closing time for equity futures contracts in VİOP, which was previously 18:10, was moved to 18:15.

While commodity certificates began trading in equity markets at Borsa Istanbul, gold certificates, which allow 0.01 grams of gold to be bought and sold in equity markets, were listed on the exchange with the code "ALTINS1" on November 21, 2022.

IPOs continued rapidly on Borsa Istanbul last year

In 2023, 54 companies went public on Borsa Istanbul, bringing the total number of companies traded on the exchange to 512, with 259 in the star market, 221 in the main market, and 32 in the sub-market.

Last year, following the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes on February 6, Borsa Istanbul decided to close the Equity Market and the equity and equity index derivative markets within VİOP for 5 business days and canceled the transactions carried out on February 8.

Borsa Istanbul's current "positive" status as a marketplace that meets the post-trade transparency conditions established by ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority), the European Union (EU) capital markets regulatory authority, within the framework of MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II) and MiFIR (Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation) provisions, was confirmed in the update.

Borsa Istanbul, which decided that two new indices named "BIST Buyback Index" and "BIST Dividend 25 Weight Capped 10" would also begin to be calculated as of August 15, announced that the Venture Capital Market (GSP) was created to enable companies that want to provide the financing they need for growth with equity to obtain resources by issuing shares through capital increases only to qualified and institutional investors and to allow these shares to be traded on the Borsa Istanbul Equity Market.

While Borsa Istanbul announced that changes were made regarding price step and quotation spread regulations in the equity market and the implementation of an opening session in exchange traded funds, it was also stated that according to the change made, an opening session consisting of order collection between 09:40-09:56 and matching sessions between 09:56-10:00 was added to the session flow of exchange traded fund trading sequences.

On December 22, when Borsa Istanbul's 150th Anniversary was celebrated, it was announced that it was decided that 500 shares traded on Borsa Istanbul would begin to be calculated within the scope of the "BIST 500 Index" as of November 1, 2023.