Turkey's Borsa Istanbul goes down at close

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index decreased 0.28 percent to close Thursday at 101,869.35 points with a trading volume of around 6.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 453.17 point decrease from Wednesday's close of 102,157.88 points, while it opened the day at 102,611.06 points.

The banking sector index closed the day down 1.13, while the holding sector increased 0.31 percent.

Among all sectors, the BIST leasing factoring index showed the best performance -- up 1.13 percent -- and the tourism sector index fell the most, losing 1.92 percent.

The USD/TRY exchange increased to 4.4550 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, up from 4.4180 at Wednesday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate rose to 5.2600 by market close, versus 5.2160 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate stood at 6.0270, compared with 5.9820 at Wednesday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index ended the day with a 0.38 percent increase. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,290.00 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Thursday, compared with $1,285.10 at Wednesday's close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $80.25 per barrel.