Turkish stocks up %2.77 at closing session

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the day at 91.527,59 points on Thursday, up 2.77% from the previous close.

Borsa Istanbul's index started the day at 88,959.88 points. As of the daily close, it increased 2,464.56 points from Wednesday's close of 89,063.03 points.

During the day, the index hovered between 88,481.22 points and 90,135.61 points.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 621 billion Turkish liras ($97 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 11.6 billion Turkish liras (nearly $2 billion).

On the fourth transaction day of the week, 51 stocks on the index rose, 4 were down and the remaining were flat compared to Wednesday.

The highest trading volumes were posted by the defense giant Aselsan, the national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, and the private lender Garanti.

The iron and polyester producer Sasa was the best performer, with its shares up 10%, while the fertilizer manufacturer Gubre dropped the most, losing 3%.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,615.00 by market close, up from $1,612.60 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $27.45 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) on Thursday.