Net profits of companies traded on the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) in the first quarter of this year increased by 0.7% year-on-year, rising to TL 15.38 billion ($2.2 billion) from TL 15.27 billion.

In the period in question, the net profit of Koç Holding, Garanti Bank, Vakıf Bank, Akbank, Iş Bank, Sabancı Holding Yapı Kredi Bank and Halk Bank exceeded TL 1 billion.

Of the 100 companies that traded on the BIST 100 index that shared their financial results within the balance sheet disclosure period, which has been extended due to the coronavirus outbreak, 73 achieved net profits in the first quarter, while the remaining 27 companies announced net losses.

For companies on the BIST 100 index, Koç Holding had the highest net profit, TL 3.47 billion, in the first three months of the year.

Vakıf Bank ranked second with TL 1.7 billion in net profit, followed by Garanti Bank with TL 1.6 billion, Iş Bank with TL 1.4 billion, Akbank with TL 1.3 billion, Sabancı Holding with TL 1.19 billion, Yapı Kredi Bank with TL 1.12 billion and Halk Bank with TL 1.12 billion.

In the same period, oil importer TÜPRAŞ announced the largest net loss of TL 2.26 billion. The oil importing company was followed by Turkish Airlines with a TL 2.23 billion net loss, ENKA Construction with TL 700.4 million and budget airlines Pegasus with TL 401.5 million net losses.

Koç Holding achieved the highest net profit growth for January to March compared to the same period last year. The company’s net profit was TL 779.3 million in the first quarter of 2019 and reached a profit of TL 3.4 billion in the first quarter this year.

In terms of net profit increase, Koç Holding was followed by Vakıf Bank, whose profit surged to TL 1.7 billion from TL 780.5 million.

Meanwhile, the net profit of 27 companies decreased in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year. In this period, Tüpraş was the company with the highest decrease in net profit in terms of quantity. The net loss of Tüpraş, which was TL 375.2 million in the January-March period of last year, increased to TL 2.2 billion in the first quarter of this year.

In terms of percentage, MLP Health Services came in first in net profit increase, rising to TL 50.3 million from TL 2.7 million. Türk Traktör, whose net profit increased tenfold to reach TL 84 million, came in second.

Companies ranked in the top 10 in the January-March period of 2019 in terms of net profit size largely managed to be on the list in the first quarter of this year as well.

Garanti Bank, Akbank, Iş Bank, Yapı Kredi Bank, Turkcell, Sabancı Holding, Ereğli Demir Çelik, Enka Construction, Tekfen Holding and Vakıf Bank were ranked as the top net earners in the first quarter of 2019.

In the first quarter of this year, Ereğli Demir Çelik, Enka İnşaat and Tekfen were removed from the list, while Koç Holding, ASELSAN and Halk Bank replaced those companies.