Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at weekly close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index decreased 0.76% to 1,126.90 points at close on Thursday.

After starting the day at 1,137.17 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index lost 8.65 points from Wednesday's close of 1,135.55 points.

The stock exchange traded half-day Thursday due to Eid al-Adha, the Islamic feast of sacrifice. Markets are also closed on Friday and Monday.

During the day, the index hovered between 1,152.70 and 1,198.16 points.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was 827.4 billion Turkish liras ($119.3 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 7.9 billion Turkish liras ($1.1 billion).

On the last transaction day of the week, 37 stocks on the index rose, 60 were down and three were unchanged compared to Wednesday.

The highest trading volumes were posted by defense giant Aselsan, private lender Garanti, and insurance company Gunes Sigorta.

Real investment trust Halk GYO was the best performer, with its shares up 6.81%, while stocks of paper producer Kartonsan dropped the most, losing 6.02%.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $43.60 per barrel as of 1 p.m. local time (1000GMT) on Thursday.