Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark stock index went down by 0.84 percent to close at 107,800.42 points on Thursday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 914.16 points from 108,714.58 points at Wednesday's close, with a total trading volume of 4.6 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion).

The BIST 100 hit its historic peak of 109,947.87 points on the first trading day of this week, and recorded its highest close at 109,781.13 points on Monday.

On Thursday, the banking and holding sector indexes went down by 1.36 and 0.82 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the BIST mining index performed the best for the second trading day in a row with a 1.19 percent rise while the wood paper printing sector declined the most, by 2.40 percent.

Shares of Vestel (VESTL), one of Turkey's leading electronics/appliances manufacturers, enjoyed the highest rise of the day -- up 6.99 percent.

The stocks of conglomerate Metro Holding (METRO), which has stakes in tourism, food processing, real estate, mining, and energy sectors, saw the biggest drop on Thursday, falling 7.81 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded stocks were mining company Koza Madencilik (KOZAA), national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), private lender Garanti (GARAN), followed by leading defense systems producer Aselsan (ASELS) plus energy company Ipek Dogal Enerji (IPEKE).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 3.5320 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) on Thursday, down from 3.5420 at Wednesday's close.

Last Friday, one dollar was traded for 3.5370 Turkish liras. The exchange rate saw its historic high in mid-January this year climbing to around 3.94 Turkish liras.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index advanced by 1.05 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram increased to 145,850 Turkish liras ($41,304) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT) on Thursday, compared with 144,750 Turkish liras ($40,850) at Wednesday's close.