Turkish stocks close at over 111,000 points

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index went up 0.74 percent to close at 111,271.95 points on Thursday, the highest close of six weeks.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 817.28 points from Wednesday's close with a 5.9-billion-Turkish lira ($1.54 billion) trading volume.

The banking and holding sector indices increased by 0.58 and 1.41 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the wholesale and retail trade indices performed the best -- rising 3.29 percent -- while the wood, paper, printing index fell the most with a 1.52 percent decline.

Conglomerate Tekfen Holding (TKFEN) -- involved in oil, power generation, construction and infrastructure -- was the top gainer on Thursday as its shares rose by 8.58 percent. The stocks of private lender Sekerbank (SKBNK) suffered the biggest drop of the day, going down 6.01 percent.

Thursday's top shares with the highest trade volume in the BIST 100 were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), state lender Halkbank (HALKB), iron and steel producer Karabuk Kardemir (KRDMD), oil refinery Tupras (TUPRS) and private lender Garanti (GARAN).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased slightly to 3.8230 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, slipping from 3.8290 at Wednesday's close. The average USD/TRY was 3.89 last month and 3.64 in the period of Jan.-Nov. this year.

One euro traded for 4.5410 liras by local market close, showing an increase compared with Wednesday's closing EUR/TRY exchange rate at 4.5370.

The BIST Gold Exchange index closed the day down 0.06 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram was 155,700 Turkish liras ($40,722) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), down from the previous closing price of 156,000 Turkish liras ($40,738).

The price of Brent oil fell to $64.33 per barrel as of 6.05 p.m. local time (1505GMT) Thursday, compared with Wednesday's close at $64.56.