By Diyar Guldogan
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index went down 0.57 percent to close at 117,592.67 points on Wednesday, with a total trading volume of 6.49 billion Turkish liras ($1.68 billion).
Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 674.19 points, while the banking sector and holding sector indices decreased by 1.73 and 0.88 percent, respectively.
Among all sectors, the mining sector index was the best performer, rising 4.40 percent, while the food beverage sector index performed the worst, down by 1.92 percent.
Stocks of gold miner Koza Altin (KOZAL) were the top gainers of the day, up 5.56 percent, while private equity firm Gozde Girisim (GOZDE) saw the biggest decline of the day, with its stocks losing 5.39 percent in value.
The day's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Koza Altin, private lender Garanti, Koza Anadolu Metal Mining and prominent mobile operator Turkcell.
On Tuesday, the BIST 100 decreased 0.12 percent to close at 118,266.86 points. The trade volume was 6.7 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.73 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate climbed to 3.8860 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Wednesday, compared with Tuesday's close at 3.8620.
The euro/lira exchange rate also rose to 4.8010 on Wednesday, from the previous close of 4.7780.
The BIST Gold Exchange index gained 0.15 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram reached to 164,800 Turkish liras ($42,543) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), up from 164,600 liras ($42,583) at Tuesday's close.
As of 6.40 p.m. local time (1540GMT) Wednesday, the price of Brent oil dropped slightly to $64.36 per barrel, versus $64.26 at the previous close.
