Turkish shares post 20-month high

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish stocks posted its highest close since May 2015 with a 0.64 percent hike to stand at almost 87,000 points on Wednesday.

The BIST 100 index advanced by 552.24 points to reach 86,847.96 while the total trading volume was 4.3 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.14 billion).

On the third day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices increased by 0.93 and 0.76 percent, respectively. The tourism sector increased the most, 3.72 percent, while the trade index fell the most, declining by 1.56 percent.

The most heavily-traded stocks were private lender Garanti Bankasi, the country's national flag carrier, Turkish Airlines, followed by other lenders Akbank, Halkbank and Vakifbank.

Garanti Bankasi, of which shares usually stand among the most heavily-traded stocks, announced Tuesday a 5.14 billion Turkish lira (some $1.7 billion) consolidated net profit last year.

Another private lender, Akbank, also announced Tuesday the bank's consolidated net profit in 2016 was 4.85 billion Turkish liras (around $1.6 billion).

Stocks of conglomerate Ihlas Holding were the top gainers of the day with a 8.33-percent rise. Tuesday's best performing shares of Tat Gida, which operates in the food sector under a major Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding, declined the most with a 3.13 percent drop Wednesday.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index increased by 0.42 percent while gold was trading at 146,800 Turkish liras (around $38,923) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

Lira continued to gain value against foreign currencies. The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased slightly to stand at 3.7710 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Wednesday, compared with 3.7870 at Tuesday's closing session, which was 3.8730 last Friday.

On Wednesday, Exporters’ Assembly of Turkey (TIM) announced that Turkey's exports increased by 15 percent in January, the highest rise in the last 49 months.

TIM data showed the country's exports totaled $10.5 billion last month and exports over the last 12 months stood at $143.6 billion, up by 1.8 percent compared with the previous 12 months.

"The increase is the greatest change since November 2012," Mehmet Buyukeksi, TIM president said.

"We announced 2017 as a leaping point for exports. We expect an increase in petroleum and commodity prices, a decrease in export losses in Russia due to the normalization of relations, and an increase in petroleum exporting countries' imports," he added.

Analysts said investors are expected to follow the results of Fed meeting plus Bank of England (BoE) interest rate decision on Thursday.