Turkish stocks end day with losses

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Wednesday down 1.39 percent at 101,891.68 points with a total trading volume of around 7.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.47 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 1,436.06-point decline from the previous close of 103,327.74 points, while it opened the midweek business day at 102,806.37 points.

On Wednesday, Turkish lira continued to lose value against major foreign currencies. The USD/TRY exchange climbed to 4.8390 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Wednesday, rising from 4.6350 at Tuesday's close.

During the day, the dollar/lira rate hit its historic high at 4.93, while it was 3.78 at the beginning of 2018. The average USD/TRY rate was 3.65 last year.

The euro/lira exchange rate also rose steeply to 5.6650 by market close, compared with 5.46 at the previous close, and one British pound traded for 6.4850 Turkish liras, up from 6.2470 at Tuesday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index fell 0.29 percent at the close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,292.00 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Wednesday, versus $1,295.70 at previous close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $78.72 per barrel -- hovering between $78.22 and $79.58 during the day -- while it was around $66 at the beginning of this year.