Turkish stocks up nearly 1 pct at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 698.28-point increase to stand at 83,826.54 points on Thursday.

The BIST 100 index increased by 0.84 percent while total trading volume was 4.3 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.11 billion).

On the fourth day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices rose by 1.64 and 0.67 percent, respectively. Among all sector indices, the information technologies index increased most with a 1.83 percent hike while the mining sector was the worst performer, with a 1.16 percent fall.

The most heavily-traded stocks were private lender Garanti Bank, the country's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, a major cement producer Afyon Cimento followed by lenders Akbank and Halkbank.

Borusan Mannesmann, a prominent pipe manufacturer, enjoyed a 7.04 percent rise -- the highest of the day -- while conglomerate Metro Holding suffered a fall of 3.03 percent, the biggest drop of the day.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index declined by 1.39 percent while gold was trading at 147,750 Turkish liras (around $38,270) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

Lira continued to lose against dollar as the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate increased to stand at 3.8610 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Thursday, compared to 3.8260 at Wednesday's closing session.

A consortium of Turkish and South Korean construction firms offered the shortest time for the construction of a new suspension bridge over the Dardanelles (Canakkale) Strait, Turkey’s transport minister said Thursday.

The consortium of Daelim (South Korea) - Limak (Turkey) - SK (South Korea) - Yapi Merkezi OGG (Turkey) bid 10.35 billion Turkish liras ($2.68 billion), which includes a five-and-half-year construction time and a 192-month lease, outbidding rivals including IHI (Japan) and Cengiz (Turkey) - Kolin (Turkey) - CRBC (China).

The construction of the Canakkale 1915 bridge, spanning over 2,000 meters between Lapseki and Gelibolu in the northwestern province of Canakkale, is set to start by March 18 and open in 2023 when the country marks the centennial of the Republic of Turkey, according to the country’s Transport Ministry.