Turkey's Borsa Istanbul up at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark stock index, BIST 100, was up 143.06 points, or 0.13 percent to close at 112,149.71 points on Wednesday.

The trade volume was 5.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.33 billion) while the banking and holding sector indices increased by 0.63 and 0.82 percent, respectively.

Among all sector indices, the transportation sector index was the best performer with 1.73 percent while the mining sector index fell the most -- 2.63 percent.

Stocks of the prominent polyester producer Sasa Polyester (SASA) were the top gainer of the day -- with a 6.84 percent rise -- whereas a defense company ASELSAN (ASELS), fell 5.68 percent -- the biggest drop on Wednesday.

The day's most traded stocks were defense company Aselsan, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, iron and steel producer Kardemir, polyester producer Sasa and gold company Koza Altin.

BIST 100 index increased 241.65 points, or 0.22 percent, to 112,006.65 at Tuesday's close with a total trading volume of 3.7 billion Turkish liras ($967.6 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira rate climbed to 3.8240 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Wednesday, from 3.8070 at previous day's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also stood at 4.5510, compared with Tuesday's close of 4.5500.

The BIST Gold Exchange index gained 0.72 percent while a kilogram of gold traded at 158,060 Turkish liras ($41,334) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Wednesday, up from Tuesday's closing price of 156,850 Turkish liras ($41,017).