Turkish shares end day with loss

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Wednesday down 0.91 percent to stand at 113,454.95 points, with a 5.95 billion Turkish lira ($1.56 billion) trade volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 1,039.55 points, down from Tuesday's close at 114,494.50 points, while the BIST technology index was the top gainer with a 4.59 percent hike, and the transportation sector showed the worst performance as its index fell 2.19 percent.

On the mid-week trading day, the BIST banking index was down 1.99 percent -- four stocks went up, 8 shares saw a decline, one stock was flat among listed lenders. The BIST holding index also recorded a fall -- down 1.39 percent -- while 7 shares were up, 25 stocks were down, and three shares were flat.

Stocks of Kipa Ticaret, operating supermarkets, were the top gainers, rising 19.94 percent. Shares of Bera Holding performed the worst, falling 13.29 percent.

The BIST 100's top five most-traded stocks were defense company Aselsan, national flag-carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, iron/steel producer Kardemir and state lender Halkbank.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 3.8140 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Wednesday, compared to Tuesday's close at 3.8040.

The EUR/TRY exchange rate also increased slightly to 4.7000 by markets' close, versus 4.6970 at the previous close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index was up 0.20 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram rose to 162,500 Turkish liras ($42,579) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), versus 162,090 Turkish liras ($42,641) on Tuesday.

As of 7 p.m. local time (1600GMT) Wednesday, the price of Brent oil stood at $62.99 per barrel -- hovering between $62.12 and $63.38 over the past twenty four hours.