Turkey's Borsa Istanbul flat at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index was flat with a 0.06 percent drop to close at 106,926.39 points on Wednesday, recording a 4.9 billion Turkish lira ($1.33 billion) trade volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell just 64.48 points from Tuesday's close at 106,990.87 points, while the BIST banking and holding indices fell 0.37 and 0.36 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the BIST information technology index climbed the most, up 1.63 percent, and the BIST mining index suffered the biggest drop of the day, losing 2.38 percent.

On the mid-week trading day, stocks of the BIST 100 with the highest trade volume were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), iron and steel producer Kardemir Karabuk (KRDMD), private lender Garanti (GARAN), real estate investment trust Emlak Gayrimenkul (EKGYO), and leading mobile operator Turkcell (TCELL).

Shares of private lender ICBC Turkey Bank (ICBCT) performed the best -- rising 17.03 percent -- while stocks of real estate investment trust Kiler GMYO (KLGYO) were the top loser on Wednesday, falling 5.17 percent.

Meanwhile, the BIST Gold Exchange index fell by 0.51 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram climbed to 151,700 Turkish liras (around $41,213) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), compared with 151,600 Turkish liras ($41,421) at Tuesday's close.

The USD/TRY rate stood at 3.6790 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Wednesday, up from Tuesday's close at 3.6640.

The nine-month average dollar/lira exchange rate was 3.60, reaching a historic high of 3.94 in mid-January. According to the Turkish Central Bank, one dollar was trading for 3.02 liras on average last year and 2.71 liras in 2015.