Turkey's Borsa Istanbul goes up at close

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the day up 0.27 percent to reach 102,341.83 points on Wednesday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index increased 273.80 points from Tuesday's close of 102,068.03 points with a total trading volume of 5.7 billion Turkish liras (nearly $1.4 billion).

The banking sector index rose by 1.28 percent while the holding sector index fell by 1.26 percent.

Among all sectors, the transportation sector index was the top performer -- up 5.41 percent -- while the sport sector index suffered the biggest drop with 1.94 percent.

The stocks of conglomerate Metro Holding (METRO), which has stakes in tourism, food processing, real estate, mining, and energy sectors performed the best, up 19.10 percent, while telecommunication systems integration provider Netas' (NETAS) stocks suffered the most, falling 8.05 percent.

The top five most-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, defense giant Aselsan,state lender Halkbank and real estate investment trust Emlak Konut GMYO.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 3.9650 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Wednesday, up from 3.9290 at Tuesday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also increased to 4.6940 by market close, up from Tuesday's close at 4.6730.

The BIST Gold Exchange index lost 0.08 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram rose to 164,780 Turkish liras (around $41,560) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), compared with Tuesday's closing price of 163,450 Turkish liras ($41,603).

As of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) Wednesday, the price of brent oil was $63.16 per barrel, compared with $63.51 of previous close.