The stock market suffered a sharp decline this month, with a drop of up to 20% in the past 3 months. During this period, 1.2 million investors withdrew from the stock market, with over a million abandoning it. Borsa Istanbul had a positive performance in the first 4 months of the year, with gains exceeding 40% in the BIST 100 index. However, the index entered a period of uncertain pricing following this increase. After reaching its historical peak at 11,250 points in July, it dropped by 20% in 3 months. Analysts noted that investors turned to risk-free instruments like deposits due to high interest rates, weak financial statements, and tight inflation fighting measures. Investors who couldn’t find what they were looking for in the stock market started closing their accounts. According to the Central Securities Depository’s data, the number of investors decreased by 1.2 million in four months. The size of the stock portfolio also shrank to more than 300 billion liras. Analysts indicated that small investors may prefer companies with strong balance sheets in the long term. The number of investors in the stock market exceeded 8.5 million in October last year, but this figure dropped to 7.155 million.