Türkiye’s stock exchange on Wednesday halted trading of equities, futures and options after a sharp selloff in the aftermath of the two devastating earthquakes that hit the country’s southeastern region.

The suspension came as the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) issued two market-wide circuit breakers after the benchmark index BIST 100 dropped about 7% within the first hour of trading on Wednesday. It declined 8.6% on Tuesday.

"Trading in Equity Market and Single Stock & Index Futures and Options Contracts in the Derivatives Market has been suspended," the stock exchange said.

A later statement said trading would be halted until the evening of Feb. 14 and that Wednesday's proceedings had been canceled.

It marked the first suspension in 24 years after a selloff that Bloomberg News reported had erased $35 billion from the value of BIST's main equities gauge.

Turkish stocks entered a technical bear market on Tuesday after falling more than 20% from their January high.

"At times of catastrophes like this, suspending trading in the stock market is a better decision in order to protect investors," Haydar Acun, managing partner of Marmara Capital in Istanbul, was cited as saying by Bloomberg.

The first market-wide circuit breaker was issued within minutes of opening on Wednesday after the benchmark index dropped 5%, continuing losses after 10 Turkish cities, along with parts of neighbouring Syria, were struck by two powerful quakes on Monday.

The benchmark BIST-100 index opened down 0.52% and was suspended at 7.09% down, while the banking sub-index was down 6.03% as trading was suspended.

The death toll from earthquakes in Türkiye rose to more than 8,500 on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, as he arrived in the region.