30,000 investors on Borsa Istanbul hold 80% of wealth belonging to 7 million people

New Party Istanbul MP Özgür Karabat laid out a striking picture of wealth distribution on Borsa Istanbul with hard numbers: 30,574 investors with portfolios of 10 million lira and above hold approximately 80% of total exchange assets — 5 trillion lira — in their hands. The remaining 6 million 688 thousand small investors are forced to make do with only 20% of the total portfolio.

Karabat emphasized that recent initial public offerings have fallen below their offering prices, causing losses for newly entering small investors, and characterized the situation as "robbery." The MP noted that the group earning high returns from interest, deposits, and carry trade operations is the real winner of this picture.

The picture is not new: the number of individual investors on Borsa Istanbul reached record levels as of the end of June, but small investors' returns lagged far behind those of institutional investors.