Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul goes up at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's stock exchange closed Wednesday up 0.19 percent at 119,528.79 points with a 7.4 billion Turkish lira ($1.97 billion) trade volume.

The BIST 100 increased 225.69 points, up from Tuesday's close at 119,303.10 points.

The banking sector index rose 1.40 percent while the holding sector index dropped 0.04 percent.

Among all sectors, the BIST transportation index was the top gainer with a 4.53 percent hike, whereas the BIST mining index was the worst performer, going down 2.21 percent.

Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines was the top gainer of the day, rising 4.97 percent, while shares of the diesel engine and tractor manufacturer Tumosan Motor suffered the biggest drop of the day, losing 6.69 percent.

The five most-traded stocks were Turkish Airlines, Tumosan Motor, private lender Garanti, investment trust Global Yatirim Holding and defense company Aselsan.

The U.S. dollar-lira rate dropped to 3.7540 as of 5.00 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Wednesday, compared with previous day's closing rate of 3.7680.

The euro-lira rate also fell slightly to 4.6810 from Tuesday's close of 4.6890.

The BIST Gold Exchange index slipped 0.29 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram decreased to 162,700 Turkish liras ($43,342) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), versus 162,900 Turkish liras ($43,263) on Tuesday.

The price of Brent crude oil declined to $68.38 per barrel as of 6.40 p.m. local time (1540GMT) Wednesday, compared with Tuesday's close of $68.52.