Turkey's Borsa Istanbul goes up at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the day with a 0.41 percent increase to 103,816.04 points with a trading volume of 6.9 billion Turkish liras ($1.89 billion) on Wednesday.

The banking sector index fell 0.14 percent and the holding sector index rose 0.46 percent.

Among all sectors, the wholesale and retail trade index advanced the most with a 2.43 percent hike, while the textile, leather sector index fell 1.18 percent.

Shares of airline company Pegasus (PGSUS) showed the highest increase, up 4.67 percent, and stocks of lender ICBC Turkey Bank (ICBCT) were the worst performer, falling 18.37 percent.

The five most-traded stocks of the BIST 100 were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), private lender Garanti (GARAN), oil refinery Tupras (TUPRS), cement producer Afyon Cimento (AFYON) and iron and steel producer Kardemir Karabuk (KRDMD).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate dropped to 3.6670 by 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Wednesday, down from 3.6710 at Tuesday's close.

The Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index was up 0.14 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram fell to 151,500 Turkish liras ($41,391) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) on the day.