UPDATE - Borsa Istanbul up at closing session

UPDATE WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Wednesday up 0.81 percent at 95,493.30 points with a trading volume of around 7.3 billion Turkish liras ($1.35 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 765.63-point increase from Tuesday's close of 94,727.67 points, while it opened the day at 94,648.02 points.

The benchmark index hovered between 94,262.05 points and 96,046.74 points, while 71 stocks on the index were on the rise, 20 on the decline, and nine flat compared to the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was around 621.3 billion Turkish liras ($116.3 billion) at close, while the banking and holding sector indices climbed 1.35 percent and 0.75 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the transportation sector index was the best performer, rising 5.41 percent, and the basic metal sector index saw the biggest drop, losing 1.54 percent.

Shares of automotive manufacturer Karsan climbed the most, up 7.50 percent, while stocks of casting producer Cemas Dokum did the worst, falling 20.00 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were national private lender Garanti, flag carrier Turkish Airlines, leading defense company Aselsan, GSM operator Turk Telekom, and state lender Halkbank,

The USD/TRY exchange rate rose slightly to 5.3650 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Wednesday, compared with 5.3530 at Tuesday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also increased to 6.1630 by market close, versus 6.1170 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate reached 7.0630 Turkish liras, compared with 7.0060 at Tuesday's close.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,236.00 as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) Wednesday, and stood same with the previous close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil dropped to $72.41 per barrel at the week's closing, compared with $72.87 at the end of Tuesday.

Turkish Treasury's cash balance recorded a deficit of $1.46 billion Turkish liras ($248 million) -- revenue of 67.23 billion Turkish liras ($11.45 billion) and expenditure of 68.7 billion Turkish liras ($11.7 billion) -- in October, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance announced on Wednesday.