Borsa Istanbul down at closing session

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark stock index, BIST 100, was down 484.41 points, or 0.41 percent to close at 119,044.38 points on Thursday.

The trading volume was 7.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.91 billion) while the banking and holding sector indices decreased by 1.65 and 0.94 percent, respectively.

Among all sector indices, the mining sector index was the best performer with 3.46 percent while the banking sector index fell the most.

Stocks of the mining company Koza were the top gainer of the day -- with a 5.07 percent rise -- whereas investment trust Global Yatirim Holding, fell 4.12 percent -- the biggest drop on Thursday.

The day's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lenders Garanti and Akbank, defense company Aselsan and iron and steel producer Eregli Demir Celik.

On Wednesday, BIST 100 increased 225.69 points, or 0.19 percent, to close at 119,528.79 with a total trading volume of 7.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.97 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell slightly to 3.7500 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Thursday, from 3.7540 at the previous day's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate dropped to 4.6720, compared with Wednesday's close of 4.6810.

The BIST Gold Exchange index went down 0.12 percent while a kilogram of gold traded at 162,000 Turkish liras ($41,334) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Thursday, down from Wednesday's closing price of 162,700 Turkish liras ($41,017).

The price of Brent crude oil rose to $69.43 per barrel as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) Thursday, compared with the previous close of $68.31.