Istanbul, February 28, 2026, 12:26 TRT — The market is closed.
- BIST 100 slipped on Friday, closing the week in the red. The index had traded above 14,000 earlier in the week.
- Volatility stayed elevated into month-end, driven by MSCI-related action in several heavyweight stocks.
- Attention shifts to Turkey’s upcoming inflation data, along with the central bank’s March policy decision.
Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 slipped 1.17% on Friday, closing the week at 13,717.81 as the index dropped 160.73 points from Thursday. Trading ranged from 13,552.80 up to 13,967.19, according to Anadolu Agency figures. The lira last traded at 43.9595 per dollar. Brent crude was at $72.65 a barrel at 6:30 p.m. local time.
BIST 100 slid roughly 1.6% on the week, retreating from an early high of 14,190.09 on Monday before slipping back into the 13,700s by Friday’s close. That kind of whiplash isn’t new—traders watching the late-February action have seen the tape jerk around in quick bursts, with little in the way of a clear, lasting trend.
Risk appetite had been fragile worldwide. “Now it’s time for a breather,” said Talley Leger, chief market strategist at The Wealth Consulting Group, with world equities dipping a bit on Friday as investors weighed stretched valuations and ongoing geopolitical strains. Reuters
In Istanbul, Kiler Holding grabbed attention after MSCI pulled back on plans to include the stock in its standard indices. The index provider, widely tracked by fund managers, cited concerns over Kiler’s free float and opted to leave it in the MSCI Turkey Small Cap index instead. Together, Kiler and defense firm Aselsan routinely make up nearly a quarter of the BIST 100’s daily movement, according to Reuters, drawing from LSEG data. Last year, Aselsan CEO Ahmet Akyol highlighted fresh export orders topping $2 billion for the first time; the company logged a 2025 net profit of 29.95 billion lira.
Banks saw their own swings. The BIST Banks index dropped 1.71% on Friday, yet closed out the week roughly 1.6% higher, Investing.com data showed.
MSCI index changes, set to kick in when the February BIST-30 futures wrap up on VIOP, could spark outsized moves late in the session, Garanti BBVA Securities noted. The firm also highlighted several stocks with catalysts: Şişecam finalized both the transfer and payment for the $171.5 million Paşabahçe land deal, and TSKB will pay a dividend for the first time since 2021. Anadolu Sigorta’s board has put forward a 1.375 lira-per-share dividend, according to the note.
There’s a flip side to the local narrative. Index moves get top-heavy when just a few stocks do all the work, so when month-end index-linked flows roll in, even one unexpected jolt — maybe an MSCI call, a missed earnings report, or a sharp currency move — can ripple through everything.
Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Ministry confirmed that the next consumer price index report will come out on March 3.
The Monetary Policy Committee at the central bank is set to convene on March 12, its 2026 calendar shows. For Turkish stocks, those two dates stand out as the next big hurdles as trading picks up again on Monday.
