Profits of technology companies traded on the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) have risen, while companies operating in the service industry turned profits in the first quarter of this year.

Profits of companies included in the technology index - among the main industry indices traded on the stock exchange soared by 66.61% in the first quarter of the year when compared to the same period of 2018, to slightly over TL 662 million, up from around TL 397.54 million.

In addition, companies included in the services index reached approximately TL 754.2 million in profits from over TL 15 million in losses in the first three months of last year.

On the other hand, profits of industrial companies and financial companies declined by 20.47% and 24.8%, respectively. Profits of companies included in the industrial index fell to around TL 4.2 billion in the first three months of the year from TL 5.25 billion in the same period of 2018, while profits of companies included in the financial index dropped to TL 10.44 billion from TL 13.88 billion.

In the main industry indices, the largest profit was achieved by financial companies whose profit declined the most. Looking at sub-sector indices, companies operating in the food and beverage sector achieved the highest profit rise.

Profits of companies operating in the food and beverage industry skyrocketed by 193.91%, followed by the mining industry with 191.79%, textiles and leather with 173.31%, communications with 151.40%, construction with 68.35%, securities and investment partnership with 55.77% and insurance with 18.49%.

In the subsector indices, the highest decline was seen in profits of finance, leasing and factoring companies.

Profits of financial, leasing, and factoring companies shrank by 81.54%, followed by stone and earth at 65.83%, chemistry, oil and plastics at 50.28%, main metal industry at 29.42%, informatics at 28.81%, banking at 18.59%, holding and investments at 13.64% and metal, goods and machinery at 8.96%.

Electricity, real estate investment trust, forest paper printing, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) industry and trade companies made a profit in the first quarter last year; however, they had losses in the same period this year.

Electricity companies dropped to TL 2.56 million in losses from TL 92.35 million in profits, real estate investment trusts to TL 171.95 million in losses from TL 1.1 billion in profits, forest paper printing companies to TL 19.31 million in losses from TL 34.66 million in profits, SMEs to TL 4.97 million in losses from TL 5.3 million in profits, and commercial companies to TL 102.3 million in losses from TL 68.77 million in profits.

Losses sustained by transportation companies in the January-March period surged to TL 1.47 billion from TL 394.21 million.