Turkish stocks go down at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index was down 715.02 points to close at 97,616.52 points on Wednesday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index slipped by 0.73 percent with a trading volume of 5.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.47 billion).

On the third trading day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices decreased by 0.36 and 0.06 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the construction index was the top gainer -- up 0.66 percent -- while the trade sector saw the biggest decline, going down 2.27 percent.

Stocks of Celebi Hava Servisi (CLEBI), which provides integrated ground services at airports, were the top performer with an increase of 2.96 percent in value, whereas leading polyester producer SASA Polyester Sanayi (SASA) performed the worst, with its stocks falling by 5.11 percent.

The five most-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lenders Garanti and Akbank plus major Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding and the country's biggest petrochemical company, Petkim.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 3.5320 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) on Wednesday, compared with 3.5160 at Tuesday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell by 0.15 percent while the price of gold per kilogram decreased to 147,000 Turkish liras (some $41,43) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).