Turkish stocks hit new high at open

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark index started the day with a 38.25-point increase to hit a new record of 94,673.16 points on Wednesday.

On the third transaction day of the week, the BIST 100 index rose by 0.04 percent.

The banking sector index went down 0.06 percent while the holding sector index was up 0.17 percent.

Among all sectors, the telecommunication sector index was the best performer -- up 0.62 percent -- while the metal products and machinery index started the day with the biggest decline, falling by 0.34 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 3.5880 at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Wednesday, compared with 3.5970 at Tuesday’s close.

Meanwhile, analysts said that investors would focus on the decision of the monetary policy committee of Turkey's Central Bank about raising, holding or lowering interest rates on Wednesday.

The BIST 100 was up 832.10 points at Tuesday's close, reaching 94,634.91 points with a total trading volume of 5.1 billion Turkish liras (more than $1.42 billion).