Turkey's benchmark stock index ends lower

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended down 0.54 percent Wednesday at 113,975.62 points with a total trade volume of 5.9 billion Turkish liras ($1.47 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 618.44 points from Tuesday's close of 116,196.54. During trading hours, the BIST 100 hovered between 113,281.90 and 114,893.85.

On a daily basis, 27 stocks on the index were up, 67 were down compared with the previous close.

The banking and holding sector indices ended lower, falling 0.34 percent and 0.12 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the BIST leasing factoring index performed the best -- up 9.36 percent -- while investment trusts sector dropped the most with 1.63 percent.

Stocks of Turkey's prominent sport club Galatasaray were the top gainers of Wednesday, rising 6.41 percent, while casting producer Cemas Dokum was the worst performer, dropping 15.64 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, leading petrochemicals producer Petkim, private lender Garanti, defense company Aselsan and gold miner Koza Altin.

The USD/TRY exchange rate climbed to 4.0000 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Wednesday. It was 3.9930 at Tuesday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate rose to 4.9220, up from its previous close of 4.8970.

The BIST Gold Exchange index fell by 0.75 percent while one kilogram of gold traded for 171,355 liras ($42,750) as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) versus 173,300 liras ($43,543) at Tuesday's close.

As of 7.43 p.m. local time (1643GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $67.03 per barrel after hovering between $67.69 and $68.2 during the day.