Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index decreased by 188.42 points to close at 77,619.47 points on Wednesday.

On the third day of the week, the BIST 100 index declined 0.24 percent. The total trading volume of the country's benchmark index was around 2.7 billion Turkish liras ($768 million).

The banking sector index decreased by 0.25 percent, and the holding index was flat with just a 0.01 percent rise. Among sector indices, the leasing factoring index advanced the most – 2.32 percent – while the construction index fell the most, 2.19 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were lenders Garanti Bank, Akbank, Halkbank, Is Bankasi, and the national flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

Shares of Odas Elektrik, which operates in the energy sector, were the top percent gainer with a rise of 4.27 percent in value, while Enka Insaat, one of Turkey's major construction companies, suffered with a 2.44 percent fall, largest decline of the day.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index advanced 0.25 percent in value, with gold trading at 128,650 Turkish liras ($36,631) per kilogram as of 4 p.m. (1300GMT).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 3.5120 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Wednesday, compared to 3.5250 in Tuesday's closing session.

Turkey's economy minister Nihat Zeybekci said Wednesday that the government wanted to increase the use of local currency to at least 10 percent in foreign trade in order to maintain the country’s financial safety.

On Wednesday, Mehmet Ali Akben, head of the Turkish Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, also said, "It is very important to conduct trade and implement trade agreements in local currencies with other countries just like Russia and China do."