Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark stock index, BIST 100, was down 1,306.66 points, or 1.13 percent to close at 114,263.53 points on Thursday.

The trading volume was 5.9 billion Turkish liras ($1.55 billion) while the banking and holding sector indices decreased by 1.74 and 0.85 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the telecommunication sector index was the top performer with a 2.62 percent hike and the BIST mining index fell the most, going down by 4.74 percent.

Shares of Turkish conglomerate Bera Holding were the top gainer of the day -- with a 13.75 percent rise -- whereas investment trust Global Yatirim Holding, fell 8.65 percent -- the biggest drop on Thursday.

The day's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lenders Garanti and Akbank, iron/steel producer Kardemir and energy company Zorlu Enerji.

On Wednesday, BIST 100 increased 0.1 percent, to close at 115,570.19 with a total trading volume of 7.1 billion Turkish lira ($1.87 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate climbed to 3.8060 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Thursday, from 3.7820 at the previous day's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate rose to 4.6770, compared with Wednesday's close of 4.6660.

The BIST Gold Exchange index went down 0.94 percent while a kilogram of gold traded at 160,500 Turkish liras ($42,168) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Thursday, down from Wednesday's closing price of 161,500 Turkish liras ($42,708).

The price of Brent crude oil dropped to $65.30 per barrel as of 6.00 p.m. local time (1500GMT) Thursday, compared with the previous close of $65.51.