Borsa Istanbul ranks among top 5 stock markets

Turkey's main stock exchange, Borsa Istanbul, was ranked among the top five performers in the world in 2014, the exchange announced in a statement late on Jan. 5.

The BIST-100 Index was the best performing investment instrument based on its 2014 annual yields, with Borsa Istanbul investors gaining an average yield of 26.43 percent in 2014, said the statement.

The market started with high tension in the political arena and the FED's decision to end the bond-purchasing program in 2014, it added.

Early in 2014, the index dropped to just over 60,000 points, hitting a low of 61,858. However, the picture changed following the local elections in March, and the index accelerated in the second quarter. Toward the end of the year, the index exceeded 87,000 points, coming close to a record.

Argentina's stock exchange, the Buenos Aires Merval Index, was the world's top performing stock exchange in 2014, with an increase of 59.13 percent.

The stock exchange of the world's second largest economy, China, came second, with the SHCOMP Index seeing an increase of 52.87 percent.

Egypt's EGX30 Index ranked third with a 31.6 percent yield, while the Indian stock market SENSEX Index came fourth on the best performing list with an increase of 29.93 percent in 2014.

In October 2014, Borsa Istanbul also rose from 32nd to 11th in the Sustainable Exchanges Index, which includes exchanges with a minimum market capitalization of $2 billion. The Sustainable Exchanges Index includes the 46 leading exchanges in the world, and identified the top three exchanges in terms of sustainability as the Helsinki Exchange (Finland), the Amsterdam Euronext (the Netherlands), and the Johannesburg Exchange (South Africa). Ranking 11th in the list,...