Turkey's Borsa Istanbul flat at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index was flat -- up 0.08 percent -- to close at 108,244.22 points with a six billion Turkish lira ($1.73 billion) trade volume on Thursday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 88.69 points, from 108,155.53 points at closing on Wednesday, while the banking and holding sector indexes advanced 0.64 and 0.10 percent, respectively.

The BIST sports index performed the best on Thursday with a 1.62 percent hike while the BIST transportation index fell the most for a second consecutive day, down by 1.62 percent.

Shares of mining and energy company Ipek Dogal Enerji were the top gainer of the day -- 8.49 percent rise -- and stocks of Pegasus Airlines saw the biggest drop with a 5.61 percent fall.

The BIST 100's top five most traded shares were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, prominent sports club Galatasaray, lenders Halkbank and Garanti plus mining and energy company Ipek Dogal Enerji.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index went down 0.51 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram also fell to 146,800 Turkish liras ($42,395) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) on Thursday. The price was 147,600 Turkish liras ($42,923) at Wednesday's close.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 3.4520 by 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, increasing slightly from 3.4460 at closing on Wednesday.

One dollar was exchanged for 3.51 on average last month, while the first eight months' average exchange rate was 3.61.

The USD/TRY rate saw sharp fluctuations after last year's defeated July 15 coup and climbed to its historic hike -- around 3.94 liras -- in mid-January this year.

According to Turkish Central Bank data, the dollar/lira rate was 3.02 on average last year and 2.71 on average in 2015.