UPDATE - Turkiye's Borsa Istanbul closes Wednesday with strong gains

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – Turkiye's benchmark stock index posted strong earnings as it rose 1.78% to close Wednesday at 2,042.85 points.

Starting the day at 2,022.53 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index gained 35.71 points from Tuesday's close of 2,007.14 points.

During Wednesday's trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 2,017.38 points and 2,039.37 points – 85 stocks on the index rose, 10 fell, and five were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of nearly 1.6 trillion Turkish liras ($120.4 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 15.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.1billion).

National flag carrier Turkish Airlines, iron/steel producer Kardemir and glassmaker Sisecam recorded the highest trading volumes during the day.

Stocks of real estate investment firm Torunlar GMYO were the top gainers with a 8.67% hike, while shares of stocks of software and information technology firm ARD Bilisim suffered the most, dropping 10%.

One ounce of gold traded for $1,832.60 by market close, up from $1,815.00 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

Price of Brent crude oil was around $91.19 per barrel as of 6.05 p.m. local time (1505GMT) on Wednesday – with a day range of $90.05 to $91.36.