Shares in Turkish insurance companies jumped on Friday after the country’s sovereign wealth fund took over insurance and pension companies owned by public banks with a TL 6.54 billion ($938 million) investment.

The Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF) late Wednesday announced it acquired all the shares of the companies to consolidate them under a single roof.

The consolidation was a project of the Treasury and Finance Ministry that was announced in December to raise the country's domestic savings rate and grow the non-banking financial services sector.

TWF in December said it would consolidate the firms within the fund to raise their competitive power and expected to complete the step in the first quarter.

As part of the project, the fund bought shares of Güneş Sigorta, Halk Sigorta, Ziraat Sigorta, Vakıf Emeklilik ve Hayat, Halk Hayat ve Emeklilik and Ziraat Hayat ve Emeklilik.

Shares in Güneş Sigorta jumped 9.2% to TL 3.08 and Halk Sigorta climbed 5.14% to TL 3.68. According to Eikon data, the free float of Güneş is 34.03% and that of Halk Sigorta is 4.68%.

Among bank shares, Halkbank was up 0.2% and Vakifbank was 0.45% higher. The main Istanbul share index was 0.76% higher.

The TWF, founded in 2016, holds all or part of the shares of several Turkish companies including flag carrier Turkish Airlines, telecommunications giant Türk Telekom, state lenders Ziraat Bankası and Halkbank, oil company Turkish Petroleum and stock market Borsa Istanbul.

Turkey's sovereign wealth fund is ranked 14th largest among the world's top 15, according to the United States-based Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.