Turkish stocks up at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the day up 0.33 percent at 108,952.73 points on Wednesday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 358.28 points from Tuesday's close at 108,594.45 points, with a 5.5 billion Turkish lira ($1.57 billion) total trading volume.

Since the beginning of the year, the index has risen over 40 percent and reached its highest level of all times, hitting 110,232.52 points on Aug. 15.

The banking and holding sector indexes went up by 0.18 and 0.19 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the BIST telecommunication index increased the most on Wednesday -- up 1.71 percent -- while the leasing factoring sector index was the worst performer, going down by 1.77 percent.

Shares of mining company Koza Madencilik were the top gainer for the second trading day in a row with a 4.63 percent increase, while stocks of conglomerate Metro Holding saw the biggest drop, falling 3.64 percent.

The BIST 100's most traded stocks were Koza Madencilik, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, mining and energy company Ipek Dogal Enerji, followed by tire manufacturer Goodyear and private lender Garanti.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 3.4836 by 7 p.m. local time (1600GMT) Wednesday, compared with 3.4970 at Monday's close.

Last Friday, one dollar was traded for 3.5230 Turkish liras. The exchange rate saw its historic high in mid-January this year climbing to around 3.94 Turkish liras.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index advanced by 0.31 percent while the price of gold per kilogram stood at 145,200 Turkish liras ($41,482) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), down from 145,900 Turkish liras ($41,714) at Tuesday's close.

The price of gold per kilogram was 146,800 Turkish liras ($41,691) at close on Friday, Aug. 18.