Turkish stocks close at record high

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index jumped by 0.69 percent to hit a historic high of 100,072.15 points at Thursday's closing.

Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index closed the day up 682.02 points with a total trading volume of 3.7 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.05 billion).

The banking and holding sectors surged 0.62 percent and 0.45 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the food, beverage index was the best performer -- up 2.98 percent -- while the leasing factoring sector saw the biggest decline, falling 1.20 percent.

Shares of Yatas Bedding, a bedding and furniture company, gained the most with an increase of 9.45 percent in value while stocks of Net Turiz, which operates in the tourism sector, performed the worst, declining 2.02 percent.

The five most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, tire manufacturer Goodyear, private equity firm Gozde Girisim and a state lender Halkbank.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 3.5160 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) on Thursday, compared with 3.5310 at Wednesday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell by 1.01 percent while the price of gold per kilogram decreased to 142,000 Turkish liras (around $40,450) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).