Turkish stocks end day with gain

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Thursday up 524.96 points to close at 116,840.94 points, with a total trading volume of 6.29 billion Turkish liras ($1.66 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose by 0.45 percent, up from Wednesday's close at 116,315.98 points. During the trading sessions, the BIST 100 hovered between 115,408.54 points and 116,993.50 points

Among all sectors, chemical, petroleum, plastic sector index performed the best -- up 3.08 percent -- while the BIST mining index fell the most, declining by 1.27 percent.

On Tuesday, the BIST banking index was up 0.16 percent while five stocks were up, four shares fell, and four stocks were flat among all listed lenders. The BIST holding index was flat with a 0.08 percent drop -- 12 shares were up, 17 stocks were down and six shares were flat among all conglomerates.

Shares of furniture and bedding manufacturer Yatas (YATAS) were the best performer on Thursday with a 6.16 percent hike and stocks of conglomerate Tekfen Holding (TKFEN) -- involved in oil, power generation, construction and infrastructure -- suffered the biggest drop, falling 3.43 percent.

The top five companies with the most-traded stocks were national flag-carrier Turkish Airlines, iron/steel producer Kardemir, energy company EnerjiSA, followed by Turkey's biggest oil refiner Tupras and private lender Garanti.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was stable at 3.7910 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday. One dollar traded for 3.7920 liras at markets' close on Wednesday.

The EUR/TRY exchange rate was also flat at 4.6760 by markets' close, compared with 4.6750 at the previous close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index fell by 0.53 percent on Thursday while one kilogram gold traded for 161,700 Turkish liras ($42,641) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT).

As of 6.50 p.m. local time (1550GMT) Thursday, the price of Brent oil stood at $65.36, hovering between $64.66 and $65.75 during the day.