Turkish stocks down at close

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index was down 1.12 percent at the close of the daily session Thursday.

The BIST 100 index declined 843.83 points to close at 74,193.07. The total trading volume of the country's stock exchange market was about 4.5 billion Turkish liras (approx. $1.32 billion).

On the fourth day of the week, the banking and holding sector indexes fell 2.03 and 0.85 percent, respectively.

The mining trusts index rose the most -- 0.20 percent -- while the biggest decline was seen in the sports index, which fell 3.06 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were private lenders Garanti Bank and Akbank, state lenders Halkbank and Vakifbank, and the national flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

Shares of Netas, a telecommunications company, were the top gainers percentage-wise with an increase of 3.9 percent, while Deva Holding, a pharmaceutical company, suffered a 5.36 percent slide, the biggest drop of the day.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index fell 1.82 percent in value, with gold trading at 129,910 Turkish liras ($37,974) per kilogram.

The Turkish lira lost value against the U.S. dollar on Thursday to trade at 3.4210 compared to 3.3960 at Wednesday's close.

Turkey’s Central Bank on Thursday hiked its policy rate by a 50 basis points to 8 percent from 7.5 percent; the overnight lending rate to 8.5 percent from 8.25 percent, while leaving the borrowing rate, under which banks lend or deposit money to the Central Bank, unchanged at 7.25 percent.