Borsa Istanbul Buyback Wave: Management and Foreign Investors Take Action

Borsa Istanbul's trading session on July 24 was shaped by corporate share repurchase strategies and the portfolio rebalancing of global funds. Specifically, the initiation of buyback programs by companies such as ARSAN, AVGYO, BIMAS, BOSSA, BORSK, EKIM, and TRALT signaled a strong indicator often interpreted as "bottom-fishing" in technical analysis, while Bank of America's operations on MANAS and SANFM revealed the trajectory of institutional risk appetite.

Technical Reflection of Corporate Confidence: Buyback Operations

Decisions by boards of directors to accumulate shares at levels deemed appropriate stand out as one of the clearest votes of confidence for the market. According to compiled data, the following companies executed significant volume buybacks:

■TRALT: The company made one of the largest buybacks relative to market cap, repurchasing 15,005,815 shares within the 48.54 – 49.80 TL band.

■BIMAS: The retail giant added 300,000 shares to its portfolio at the 382.33 TL level.

■BORSK: The company repurchased 800,000 shares in the 6.21 – 6.35 TL price range, while BOSSA collected 250,000 shares in the 6.84 – 7.08 TL range in the textile sector.

■EKIM: Repurchased 220,000 shares in the 22.40 – 23.08 TL band.

■AVGYO: The company bought back 200,000 shares at 15.69 – 16.03 TL levels, while ARSAN repurchased 750,000 shares in the 3.53 – 3.55 TL price range.

Insider and Foreign-Driven Volatility

Efforts to strengthen management control and rotation movements by global investment banks were among the decisive factors in short-term pricing.

■ATSYH: Board Chairman Süleyman Yıldırım purchased 22,406 shares at 104.00 TL to raise his stake in the company to 0.75%.

■MANAS: Bank of America Corporation reduced its capital share to 3.26%, executing 7,360,789 buy and 12,734,874 sell transactions. The transaction price range was 30.65 – 31.21 TL.

■SANFM: Also by Bank of America, 1,304,469 buy and 778,955 sell transactions were made in the 9.58 – 9.61 TL range, increasing the capital share to 5.07%.

The repurchase of over 15 million shares in TRALT suggests a strong support level forming in the pricing mechanism. Our algo-trading models indicate that buybacks in stocks like BIMAS serve as a signal for bottom-fishing amidst pricing below the Ichimoku Cloud. The selling pressure on MANAS, however, brings a risk of a sustained breakdown below short-term moving averages.