Turkish shares, lira close higher

By Bahattin Gonultas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish shares Thursday joined in the global rally triggered by the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST-100, the country’s benchmark index, closed up 2.41 percent (1,880.05 points) at 79,795.94 as Turkey’s Central Bank on Thursday cut its overnight lending rate by 25 points, following recent reductions in the last six months.

On the fourth trading day of the week, the financial sector index rose about 2.88 percent and the industry sector and service sector indexes were also up 1.55 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively.

Borsa Istanbul's most actively traded stocks were private lender Garanti Bank, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, state lender Halkbank and energy giant Tupras.

The largest winners were state lender Vakifbank (VAKBN), which saw an increase of 6.76 percent or 0.40 points.

- Gold price up

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index also rose by 0.87 percent in value Thursday compared with Wednesday's closing, with gold trading at 126,650 Turkish liras per kilogram.

The Lira was positive, strengthening against the dollar at 2.9421 compare with the previous close at 2.9765.

Turkey’s Central Bank cut its overnight lending rate, the highest of the multiple rates it uses to set policy, by 25 points following recent reductions in the last six months, in line with expectations.

The overnight lending rate, which is the rate at which banks borrow from the Central Bank overnight, went from 8.50 percent to 8.25 percent.

However, Turkey’s overnight borrowing rate, under which banks lend or deposit money to the Central Bank, remained unchanged at 7.25 percent.

The one-week repo rate, known as policy rate, was also kept at 7.5 percent, the bank said.