UPDATE - Borsa Istanbul down at closing session

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index dropped by 1.18 percent to 103,869.02 points with a trading volume of around 7.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.66 billion) at the closing session on Wednesday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 1,244.36-point rise from the previous close of 105,113.38 points, while it opened the day at 104,979.24 points, down 0.13 percent.

The benchmark index hovered between 103,639.50 points and 105,785.20 points, while 14 stocks on the index were on the rise, 41 on the decline, and 45 flat compared to the previous close.

The banking and holding sector indices decreased 0.76 percent and 0.65 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the investment trusts sector index was the best performer, rising 3.84 percent, and the leasing factoring sector index saw the biggest drop, losing 3.67 percent.

Stocks of casting producer Cemas Dokum climbed the most, up 15.77 percent, while shares of telecommunication giant Turk Telekom were the worst, falling 8.24 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, polyester producer Sasa, iron/steel producer Kardemir and private lender Akbank.

The USD/TRY exchange rate dropped to 4.5030 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Wednesday, compared with 4.5790 at Tuesday's close. It had hit an all-time high with 4.93 last week.

The euro/lira exchange rate also decreased to 5.2320 by market close, versus 5.3050 at the previous close, and one British pound was traded for 5.9980 Turkish liras, compared with 6.0930 at Thursday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index gained in value by 0.39 percent at the close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,300.00 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Wednesday, compared with $1,295.00 at previous close.

The price of Brent oil rose by 2.3 percent to $77.32 per barrel as of 1500GMT Wednesday, from $75.61 at the previous close.

Turkey's economic confidence index slipped month-on-month in May, falling 4.9 percent to 93.5, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reported on Wednesday.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast on Wednesday that Turkey's economy would grow 5.1 percent in 2018 and 5 percent next year. It also projected that the global economy will grow 3.8 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 2019.

The Turkish banking sector posted an 18.8-billion-Turkish lira ($4.67 billion) net profit in the January-April period, up by 7.9 percent versus the same period last year, according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) on Wednesday.