Turkish stocks go down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index fell by 1.32 percent to close at 109,253.20 points on Wednesday with a total trade volume of around 8.9 billion Turkish liras ($2.1 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index declined 1,459.50 points from Tuesday's close of 110,712.70 points, while it opened the mid-week trading day at 110,293.86 points.

The USD/TRY exchange rate stood 4.1480 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Wednesday, compared with its previous close of 4.1340. Since the beginning of this year, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate climbed by nearly 16 percent, while the average rate was 3.65 last year.

The euro/lira exchange rate also rose to 5.1370 by market close versus 5.1130 at Tuesday's close, and one British pound traded for 5.9090 Turkish liras while the GBP/TRY rate was 5.8700 at the previous close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index advanced by 0.97 percent at daily close. In the Precious Metals and Diamond Markets of Borsa Istanbul, one ounce of gold traded for $1,352.00 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Wednesday, while it was $1,339.00 at the previous close.

As of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $72.41 per barrel, hovering between $70.56 and $73.09 during the day.