Turkish shares down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index went down 482.34 points to close at 89,002.56 points on Thursday.

The BIST 100 index declined by 0.54 percent with a total trading volume of 3.8 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.01 billion).

On the fourth day of the week, the banking index decreased by 0.96 percent and the holding index advanced by 0.39 percent. Among all sector indexes, the small and medium-sized enterprises industrial index was the best performer -- up 2.75 percent -- while the construction sector was the worst, falling 1.69 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were lenders Garanti, Halkbank and Akbank, the national flag carrier Turkish Airlines plus the country's major defense systems producer ASELSAN.

Stocks of Metro Holding (METRO), heavily involved in tourism, food processing, real estate, mining, and energy sectors, were the top gainers of the day, rising 6.45 percent.

Shares of Otokar (OTKAR), one of Turkey's major defense industry companies operating under the conglomerate Koc Holding, saw the biggest drop of the day -- 4.67 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate climbed over 3.75. One dollar was worth 3.7520 liras as of 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) Thursday, compared with 3.7320 at Wednesday's close.

The dollar traded for 3.7250 liras on March 3 after seeing a historic hike -- over 3.90 liras -- in mid-January.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index fell 0.83 percent while the price of gold per kilogram increased to 145,750 Turkish liras (some $38,862) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), compared with 145,650 Turkish liras (some $39,007) at Wednesday's close.