By Bekir Gurdamar
ISTANBUL (AA) - Foreign investors have made a net purchase worth over $1.6 billion in Turkey in the first half of the current year, up from $578 million last year.
The net purchases tripled in the period compared to the same last year, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency, citing Borsa Istanbul's statistics.
The investors made the strongest purchase in January with $816 million.
Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100, the country's main index, increased by almost 30 percent in terms of Turkish lira in 2017.
The data showed that foreign investors closed the month of June with net purchases worth $261 million.
The BIST rose by almost 3 percent in June.
Shares of Turkish airlines, the country's national flag carrier, was the first choice of foreign investors with net purchases totaling nearly $70 million during the last month.
Among all shares, Emlak Konut, Real Estate Investment Trust, was sold the most by foreign investors. The amount of the sale is $40.7 million.