(Bloomberg) --

Turkey’s stock exchange warned companies with slim free float rates to either increase the portion of their shares available for trading or face being downgrading to a new platform.

Companies with free float rates below 5% may be transferred to Borsa Istanbul’s Pre-Market Trading Platform if they do not meet the requirement by Jan. 1, 2021, according to a statement from the exchange. It called out companies that don’t yet meet the threshold by name, including QNB Finansbank AS, Kent Gida Maddeleri Sanayii ve Ticaret AS and Turkiye Kalkinma ve Yatirim Bankasi AS.

The warning follows a market frenzy this year, where unprecedented levels of activity by local retail investors made two companies with free float rates below 1% the largest listed Turkish companies by market capitalization. Shares of candy maker Kent Gida have risen 1,930% since the beginning of the year, while lender QNB Finansbank’s stock has risen another 83% after quadrupling in 2019. Its peers in the Borsa Istanbul Banks Index are down 31% during the same period.

Retail Stock Frenzy Gives Turkish Sweets Maker Seat at Top Table

Most of this year’s profitable performances in Istanbul stocks were observed in what local traders call “side stocks,” which fall outside the ranks of the country’s better-known, higher-valued companies. Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul Small and Medium Enterprises Index is up 215% this year, compared to a 2.9% drop for the benchmark BIST 100 Index.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.