Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul hits record-high at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's stock exchange reached its highest-ever close on Wednesday, recording 119,648.37 points.

The BIST 100 rose 1.05 percent or 1,248.31 points, with a total trading value of 8.5 billion Turkish liras (around $2.26 billion), while the banking sector index rose 3.69 percent and the holding sector index dropped 0.37 percent.

The banking sector index was the best performer, and the telecommunication sector index saw the biggest drop, falling 1.41 percent.

Turkey's leading defense company Aselsan was the top gainer of the day, rising 7.28 percent, while shares of the bedding and furniture company Yatas suffered the biggest drop of the day, losing 2.26 percent.

The five most-traded stocks were Aselsan, flag carrier Turkish Airlines, state lender Halkbank, private lender Garanti and investment trust Global Yatirim Holding.

The U.S. dollar-lira rate dropped by nearly 1 percent to 3.7480 at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Wednesday, compared with previous day's closing rate of 3.7840.

The euro-lira rate also fell slightly to 4.6360 from Tuesday's close of 4.6390.

The BIST Gold Exchange index advanced 1.13 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram decreased to 162,200 Turkish liras ($43,286) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), versus 162,900 Turkish liras ($43,473) on Tuesday.

The price of Brent crude oil rose to $70.02 per barrel as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) Wednesday, compared with Tuesday's close of $69.81.