Turkish stocks up more than 1 pct at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index went up 1.09 percent to close at 106,447.54 points on Thursday, with a 5-billion-Turkish lira ($1.3 billion) trading volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 1,143.60 points from Wednesday's close at 105,303.94 points. The banking and holding sector indices increased by 0.72 and 1.63 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the transportation index performed the best -- rising 4.49 percent -- while the construction index fell the most with a 0.73 percent decline.

An airline company, Pegasus (PGSUS), was the top gainer on Thursday as its shares rose by 5.78 percent. Stocks of a diesel engine and tractor manufacturer Tumosan Motor (TMSN) suffered the biggest drop of the day, going down 1.61 percent.

Thursday's top shares with highest trade volume in the BIST 100 were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), lenders Garanti (GARAN) and Halkbank (HALKB), defense company Aselsan (ASELS) and another lender Akbank (AKBNK).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 3.8700 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, climbing from 3.8500 at Wednesday's close. The average USD/TRY was 3.89 last month and 3.64 in the period of Jan.-Nov. this year.

One euro traded for 4.5660 liras by local market close, showing an increase compared with Wednesday's closing EUR/TRY exchange rate at 4.5470.

The BIST Gold Exchange index closed day 0.91 percent down, while the price of gold per kilogram was 156,427 Turkish liras ($40,503) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), down from previous closing price of 157,100 Turkish liras ($40,797).

The price of Brent oil fell to $61.86 per barrel as of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) Thursday, compared with Wednesday's close at $62.04.