Turkish stocks go up over 2 percent at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index went up 2.44 percent on Thursday to close at 116,225.60 points with a 6 billion Turkish lira ($1.6 billion) trade volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 2,770.65 points, up from Wednesday's close at 113,454.95 points. Among all sectors, the BIST mining index performed the best with a 7.24 percent climb while the technology sector index went down the most, falling by 0.82 percent.

The BIST banking index was up 3.48 percent -- 11 shares were up, one stock fell, one share was flat among listed lenders. The BIST holding index also climbed 2.45 percent while 28 stocks were up, 4 shares were down, and three stocks were flat.

Shares of mining company Koza Madencilik (KOZAA) were the top gainers -- up 11.52 percent and stocks of Isiklar Enerji Yapi Holding (IEYHO) suffered the biggest drop, declining 2.56 percent.

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

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 3.7720 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, compared with Wednesday's close at 3.8140.

The EUR/TRY exchange rate increased slightly to 4.7090 by markets' close, versus 4.6990 at the previous close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index was up 1.20 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram climbed to 164,250 Turkish liras ($43,519) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), versus 162,500 Turkish liras ($42,579) on Tuesday.

As of 7.15 p.m. local time (1615GMT) Thursday, the price of Brent oil rose to $63.45 per barrel -- hovering between $63.12 and $65.15 on Thursday.