Turkish stocks go up at close

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index went up 0.85 percent to close at 114,947.58 points on Thursday, with a total trading volume of 7.98 billion Turkish liras ($1.97 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index earned 971.96 points, up from 113,975.62 at Wednesday's close, while the banking and holding sector indices increased by 1.76 percent and 1.04 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the leasing factoring sector index was the best performer, rising 15.32 percent, while the BIST textile leather index performed the worst, going down 1.30 percent.

Stocks of state lender Halkbank (HALKB) were the top gainers of the day, up 10.39 percent, while shares of event and congress organizer Flap Kongre Toplanti Hizmetleri (FLAP) suffered the most, falling 19.82 percent.

Thursday's most-traded stocks were Halkbank, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, gold miner Koza Altin and conglomerate Dogan Holding.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange stood at 4.0360 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Thursday, compared with Wednesday's close at 4.0000.

The euro/lira exchange rate increased to 4.9470 by market close, compared with the previous close of 4.9220.

The BIST Gold Exchange index lost 1.48 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram was 172,100 Turkish liras ($42,660) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), down from 173,300 liras ($43,543) at Wednesday's close.

As of 7.35 p.m. local time (1635GMT) Thursday, the price of Brent oil stood at $68.40 per barrel -- hovering between $67.75 and $68.91 during the day.