Turkish stocks up 0.97 pct at midweek close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the midweek trading up 0.97 percent to close at 94,441.10 points on Wednesday.

After starting the day at 94,158.59 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index climbed 907.98 points from 93,533.12 points of Tuesday's close.

Peaking at 94,891.28 points, the BIST 100's daily low was 94,041.46 points during the day -- 58 stocks on the index rose, 31 fell, and 11 were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing Wednesday with a market value of some 625 billion Turkish liras ($112 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 5.77 billion Turkish liras ($1.03 billion).

By market capitalization, the leading companies of the BIST 100 were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding, private lender Garanti Bankasi, and energy giant Tupras.

The highest trading volumes were posted by the country's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Garanti Bankasi, and state-run lender Halkbank.

Stocks of conglomerate Tekfen Holding (TKFEN) -- involved in oil, power generation, construction and infrastructure -- showed the top performance with a 5.11-percent hike, while shares of energy and construction company Isiklar Enerji Yapi Holding (IEYHO) fell the most, going down 3.45 percent.

One ounce of gold was sold for $1,293.20 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus the previous close of $1,290.00.

A barrel of Brent oil was sold for $69.16 as of 7.30 p.m. local time (1630GMT) on Wednesday -- with a day range of $68.97 to $69.96.

At the beginning of 2019, the price of Brent oil was around $53 per barrel.