UPDATE - Turkish stocks go up at close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES FOR STOCKS AND SECTORS

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index rose 1.59 percent to close Thursday at 102,380.68 points with a trading volume of around 6.8 billion Turkish liras ($1.6 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 1,600.11-point hike from Wednesday's close of 100,780.57 points, while it opened the day at 101,236.81 points.

During the sessions, the benchmark index saw the lowest level at 99,318.22 points and the highest at 102,294.00 points, while 68 stocks on the index were on the rise, 26 on the decline, and six flat compared with the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 636.5 billion Turkish liras ($148.4 billion) at the close, while the banking and holding sector indices closed the day up 3.36 and 1.77 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the BIST banking index recorded the top performance and the BIST tourism index went down the most, falling 1.41 percent.

Shares of iron and steel producer Kardemir enjoyed the highest gain with a 7.26 percent rise while stocks of events organizer Flap Kongre Toplanti Hizmetleri saw the biggest drop, declining 18.84 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti Bankasi, iron and steel producer Kardemir, followed by state lender Halkbank and mining company Koza Altin.

The USD/TRY exchange was 4.2480 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, falling from 4.2690 at Wednesday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate stood at 5.0670 by market close, compared with 5.0710 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate was 5.7500, versus 5.8130 at Wednesday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index ended the day with a 0.39 percent rise. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,317.10 by market close, climbing from $1,312.00 at Wednesday's close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $76.91 per barrel -- hovering between $76.52 and $77.97 on Thursday -- up from around $66 at the beginning of 2018.