Foreign investors made a net investment of $1.8 billion in the Borsa Istanbul in 2017, an increase of almost 300 percent, as they made net purchases worth $613 million in 2016.

Data from the Borsa Istanbul shows that foreigners invested $180 million in December and $1.78 billion in 2017.

On a monthly basis, foreign investors made net purchases in eight months of the year and net sales in four months. Closing 2016 with investments of $613 million, foreign investors increased their trading rate to 65 percent with strengthened stock buy-ins. The trading rate of foreign investors was 63 percent at the end of 2016.

January 2017 saw the highest net purchases by foreigners, while September was a month of strong sell-offs with $321 million. Due to the interest of foreign investors, Borsa Istanbul's benchmark BIST 100 rose 74.6 percent on a TL basis and 37.3 percent on a dollar basis. The dollar-based increase of the index in December was 15 percent with the decreasing greenback. Accordingly, the BIST 100 has delivered a great performance since March 2017.

The growing risk appetite in global markets and the expanding Turkish economy fostered the interest of foreign investors in Borsa Istanbul, analysts said, referring to the BIST 100 breaking closing records 29 times in 2017.

The index also closed 2017 at a record high, reaching 115,333 points, analysts noted, and accordingly, foreign investors increased their yields with company stocks that benefitted from the growing economy. Meanwhile, the dollar-based index tumbled in just two months, while seeing rises in 10 months last year. But it closed 2017 at 30.427 points while seeing a historic high of 51,070 points in November 2010.

While shares of Turkish Airlines (THY) were one of the stocks foreigners bought in December ($38.8 billion), the stock attracting the greatest interest from foreign investors was Kardemir Karabük Denmir Çelik (Kardemir) ($66.4 million). While waning geopolitical risks in the region, resolution of the visa issue with the U.S. and financial results in the third quarter drew great interest to THY stocks, the growing economy, which expanded with 11.1 percent growth in the third quarter and 7.4 percent in the first nine months of 2017, the recovery of the European economy and the soaring commodity prices affected the rise of Kardemir shares.