Turkey's Borsa Istanbul rises 2.4 pct at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

 Turkey's benchmark stock index climbed 2.4 percent to close at 95,411.49 points on Wednesday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 93,365.15 points and gained 2,238.22 points from Tuesday's close of 93,173.27 points.

The Turkish lira gained ground against foreign exchanges following the Central Bank's decision to keep the one-week repo rate -- also known as the policy rate -- constant at 24 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate slipped to 5.3630 at close, down from Tuesday's close of 5.4440.

The euro/lira rate fell at close to 6.1170 versus 6.2270 at the previous close.

One British pound traded for 6.9220 Turkish liras, while the GBP/TRY rate was 7.0150 at the close on Tuesday.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, the price of one ounce of gold was around $1,290.30 by market close, down from $1,291.00 the previous day.

The price of Brent crude oil rose to $60.80 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) Wednesday, versus $60.64 at the previous close.

The benchmark index hovered between 93,023.46 and 95,440.55 points during the midweek trading day.

Total market value of the BIST 100 was around 617.7 billion Turkish liras ($113.5 billion) by market close, and the daily trade volume was 8.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.62 billion).

On Wednesday, 72 stocks in the index were on the rise, while 22 were on the decline, and six were flat compared to the previous close.

Highest trading volumes were posted by Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines and private lender Akbank. 

Shares of event organizer Flap were the top gainers -- up 14.71 percent -- as stocks of Celebi Hava Servisi, which provides integrated ground services at airports, fell the most -- down 4 percent.