Turkey's Borsa Istanbul ends day with losses

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Thursday down 1.73 percent at 102,909.13 points with a trade volume of around 7 billion Turkish liras ($1.67 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 1,816.61-point fall from Wednesday's close of 104,725.74 points, while it opened the day at 104,734.98 points.

During the trading hours, the benchmark index saw the lowest level at 102,629.70 points and the highest level at 104,915.15 points, while 21 stocks on the index were on the rise, 72 on the decline, and seven flat compared with the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 641.8 billion Turkish liras ($155.7 billion) at the close, while the banking and holding sector indices fell by 2.93 and 1.30 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the BIST electricity index was the only one which ended the day with gains -- up 0.81 percent -- and the BIST leasing factoring index saw the largest decline, dropping 14.64 percent.

Shares of energy company Ayen Enerji (AYEN) performed the best with a 11.94 percent hike, while stocks of events organizer Flap Kongre Toplanti Hizmetleri (FLAP) saw the biggest drop, going down 14.37 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were private lender Garanti Bankasi, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, iron/steel producer Kardemir, followed by state lender Halkbank and mining company Koza Altin.

The USD/TRY exchange rose to 4.2100 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, versus 4.1770 at Wednesday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate stood at 5.0430 by market close, compared with 5.0020 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate was 5.7320, up from 5.6900 at Wednesday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index increased by 0.46 percent at close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,314.00 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Thursday, compared with $1,308.00 at Wednesday's close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $72.88 per barrel -- hovering between $72.50 and $73.64 during Thursday -- climbing from around $66 at the beginning of this year.