Turkey’s stocks up ahead of possible Fed rate hike

ANKARA (AA) Turkish stocks gained 0.57 percent on Wednesday amid worries that the Federal Reserve could increase its benchmark interest rate next month.

Gains in banking, mining and holding sectors propelled shares higher.

Shares on the Borsa Istanbul national 100-share index ended the day up 440.69 points at 78,147.82 and the Turkish lira rose against the U.S. dollar.

On the third trading day of the week, the banking index rose about 1.05 percent. The holding and mining index were also up 1.28 percent and 6.22 percent, respectively.

The trade sector ended 4.67 percent lower for the day with a total trading volume of 2.9 billion Turkish liras ($993 million).

Borsa Istanbul's most actively traded stock were Garanti Bank, Bim Magazacilik, state lender Halkbank and Turkish Airlines

One of largest winners was Koza Gold (Kozal), which saw an increase of 8.05 percent or 0.81 points to trade at 10.87 liras in late trading following a Turkish court decision making a cautionary judgment on shares owned by Koza-Ipek conglomerate Chair Akin Ipek and his relatives.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index lost 1.07 percent in value Wednesday, with gold trading at 126,950 Turkish liras per kilogram.

The Turkish lira on Tuesday was trading marginally higher.

The lira was exchanging around 2.93 against dollar -- it dropped to 2.91 which was the highest value since July 15 -- while the benchmark 10-year government bond yield rose 9.51 percent, an increase of 0.90 percent from previous close on Tuesday.