Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index decreased by 214.74 points to close at 77,404.74 points on Thursday.

The BIST 100 index declined by 0.28 percent on the fourth day of the week. The total trading volume of the country's benchmark index was around 2.6 billion Turkish liras ($740 million).

The banking and holding sector indices decreased by 0.31 and 0.22 percent, respectively. Among all sector indices, the investment trusts index rose the most – 1.38 percent – while the mining index fell the most, 6.84 percent.

The most heavily-traded stocks were lenders Garanti Bank, Akbank and Halkbank, food giant Ulker, and the national flag carrier, Turkish Airlines.

Shares of Karsan, which has businesses in the automotive industry, were the top percent gainer with a rise of 11.34 percent in value, while Ipek Dogal Enerji, which operates in the energy sector, suffered with a 9.24 percent fall, the biggest drop of the day.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index declined by 0.38 percent in value, with gold trading at 128,080 Turkish liras ($36,457) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was flat to stand at 3.5140 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) on Thursday, compared to 3.5120 in Wednesday's closing session.

On Thursday, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said Turkey aims to update its Custom Union deal with the EU by early 2017 to widen the scope of the agreement to include agricultural goods, services and public procurements.