Turkish stocks up nearly 1 percent at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Thursday up 0.99 percent to stand at 114,718.80 points with a trade volume of 7.2 billion Turkish liras (nearly $1.9 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index gained 1,129.35 points while the banking and holding sector indices were up 1.28 and 1.35 percent, respectively.

On the fourth trading day of the week, the mining index advanced the most with a 3.42 percent hike. The construction index fell by 0.79 percent, marking the worst performance of the day among all sectors.

Energy company Zorlu (ZOREN) was the top gainer on Thursday as its stocks gained 8.59 percent in value while the stocks of Coca Cola Icecek (CCOLA) performed the worst, going down 1.82 percent.

The top five most-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), automotive manufacturer Karsan Otomotiv (KARSN), electronics appliances producer Vestel Elektronik (VESTL), iron and steel producer Kardemir (KRDMD) and the country's leading petrochemicals producer Petkim (PETKM).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was flat at 3.7930 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, while one euro traded for 4.5720 liras by market close, a slight increase from Wednesday's close of 4.5520.

The BIST Gold Exchange index fell by 0.38 percent and the price of gold per kilogram declined to 161,370 Turkish liras ($42,527) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Thursday, down from 161,700 Turkish liras (around $42,620) the previous day.

As of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) Thursday, the price of Brent oil was $69.70 per barrel, compared with $69.03 at Wednesday's close.