Borsa Istanbul goes up at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index went up by 309.02 points to close at 89,445.55 points on Wednesday.

The BIST 100 index rose by 0.35 percent with a total trading volume of 3.6 billion Turkish liras (approximately $967.4 million).

On the third day of the week, the banking index increased by 0.92 percent while the holding index dropped by 0.46 percent.

Among all sector indexes, the basic metal sector was the top gainer, rising 2.16 percent while the leasing and factoring sector was the worst performer with a 3.70 percent drop.

The most heavily-traded stocks were lenders Garanti and Halkbank, biggest petrochemical producer company Petkim, private lender Akbank and the national flag carrier, Turkish Airlines.

Shares of Yazicilar Holding, which operates mainly in beverages, retail trade, and automotive sectors were the top gainer of the day -- up 3.22 percent -- while a gold miner Koza Goldensaw the biggest drop of the day, falling by 3.94 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 3.7250 liras as of 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) Wednesday, compared with 3.7480 at Tuesday's close.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index dropped by 0.38 percent while the price of gold per kilogram declined to 143,600 Turkish liras (some $38,589) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), compared with 145,203 Turkish liras (around $39,396) at Tuesday's close.

Turkey's unemployment rate was up by 1.9 percent to reach 12.7 percent in December 2016 from a year earlier, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government ran a budget surplus of 4.6 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.24 billion) in the first two months, according to the finance minister announced.

"The budget continues to comply with our targets," Finance Minister Naci Agbal said in a statement.

The minister said budget revenues reached 105.7 billion liras (around $28.5 billion) in the first two months -- a 15.6 percent increase compared with the same period last year.