Turkish stocks down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark BIST 100 index closed the day 1.28 percent lower on Wednesday at 83,128.26 points.

The market fell 1,079.63 points during the day with a total trading volume of 4.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.15 billion).

The banking and holding sectors decreased by 1.73 and 0.80 percent, respectively. The insurance sector was the best performer with a 0.81 percent hike while the basic metal index saw the largest decline of the day by dropping 2.44 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were in Garanti Bank and Turkish Airlines followed by lenders Halkbank and Akbank and a major conglomerate Sabanci Holding.

Cemtas Celik Makina was the top gainer of the day, its shares increased by 3.69 percent while airline company Pegasus' shares decreased the most by falling 4 percent.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index fell by 0.43 percent. Gold was trading at 147,900 Turkish liras ($38,654) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT).

The dollar/lira exchange rate rose to 3.8260 at 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT), compared to 3.7600 at Tuesday’s closing, and converged to last week's 3.8200 level.

"The Turkish Central Bank is doing its job by focusing on monetary policies, financial stability and inflation targeting in line with its independent structure," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.

Yildirim's comments on Tuesday came after the bank rose its overnight lending rate -- the highest of the multiple rates it uses to set policy -- by 75 base points to 9.25 percent following the Turkish lira’s sharp fall against the U.S. dollar.

"Of course, we do not desire higher interest rates which may interrupt growth, investments, competition and increase costs. The government aims to keep the finance channels open with low costs," he said.

"But the Central Bank is totally independent and has specific policy instruments to achieve its goals. We need to make sure that the government and the bank cooperate to reach the targets for inflation and growth.” Yildirim added.

Investors are expected to follow international credit rating agency Fitch’s review on Turkey, which is due on Friday.