Borsa Istanbul goes up at close

By Can Erozden

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Wednesday by going up 0.66 percent to reach 105,963.60 points with a 7.4 billion Turkish lira ($1.8 billion) trade volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 695.81 points, up from Tuesday's close at 105,267.80 points, while the banking and holding sector indices advanced by 1.98 and 0.91 percent, respectively.

Among all sector indices, the building sector index was the best performer with 3.58 percent while the trade sector index fell the most -- down 1.49 percent.

Sasa Polyester (SASA) enjoyed the best performance as its shares went up by 19.86 percent while supermarket chain Migros (MGROS) suffered the biggest drop of the day, falling 8.53 percent.

Wednesday's most-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), private lender Garanti (GARAN), Sasa Polyester (SASA), state lender Halkbank (HALKB) followed by iron/steel producer Karabuk Kardemir (KRDMD).

The USD/TRY rate rose to 3.9570 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT), up from 3.9560 at Tuesday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also rose to 4.6530, compared with Tuesday's close at 4.6400.

The BIST Gold Exchange index gained value by 0.40 percent while a kilogram of gold traded at 163,850 Turkish liras ($41,660) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Wednesday, up from Tuesday's closing price of 162,250 Turkish liras ($40,966).

The price of Brent oil was $62.98 per barrel as of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) Wednesday, compared with $62.66 at Tuesday's close.