Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul ends Thursday with loses

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark stock index closed at 1,863.65 points on Thursday.

Starting the day at 1,916.28 points, Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index lost 31.81 points, or 1.68%, from Wednesday’s close of 1,895.46 points.

The index’s lowest value during the day was 1,860.69 points, while its daily high was 1,923.70 points.

The total market value of BIST 100 was approximately 1.5 trillion Turkish liras ($123 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 24 billion Turkish liras ($1.9 billion).

A total of 23 stocks on the index rose during the day, 74 fell, and three remained unchanged compared to Wednesday’s close.

The highest trading volumes were posted by private lender Garanti BBVA, polyester producer Sasa, and iron and steel producer Eregli.

Shares of investment bank Is Yatirim performed the best with a 4.59% increase, while stocks of gas company Aygaz saw the largest decline, 6.14%.

One ounce of gold traded for $1,808.85 by the day’s end, up from $1,808.00 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul’s Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was up almost 1% to $77.33 per barrel as of 6.18 p.m. local time (1518GMT).