UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES
By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Wednesday down 2.37 percent to close at 94,440.69 points.
Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index posted a 2,291.07-point drop from Tuesday's close of 96,731.76 points, while it started the midweek trading day at 97,070.15 points.
During Wednesday's trading, the BIST 100's reached 97,168.89 points. Compared with the previous close, nine stocks on the index rose, 87 fell, and four were flat.
Among all sectors, the BIST sports index rose by 0.20 percent, highest increase of the day, while the BIST transportation index declined the most, going down 4.79 percent.
Stocks of casting producer Cemas Dokum were the top gainers — up 9.01 percent — and Turkish conglomerate Ittifak Holding showed the worst performance with a 13.81-percent fall.
As of Wednesday's close, the total market value of the BIST 100's listed companies was nearly 620 billion liras ($101 billion) with a trading volume of 8.06 billion liras ($1.32 billion).
Leading companies by market capitalization were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($6.76 billion), iron and steel producer Eregli Demir Celik ($6.16 billion), and energy giant Tupras ($5.65 billion).
On Wednesday, most traded companies on the BIST 100 were lenders Garanti and Halkbank, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, defense company Aselsan and petrochemicals producer Petkim.
By market close, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 6.0380, while one dollar traded for 6.1390 liras at Tuesday's close.
The euro/lira rate was 6.9580, down from 7.0330 at the previous close, and the GBP/TRY exchange rate was 7.9760, versus 8.0240 at close on Monday.
In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, the price of one ounce of gold was $1,187.00 at Wednesday's close, while the price was $1,185.00 at the previous close.
As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at around $83.65 per barrel, hovering between $83.33 and $85.15 during midweek trading.
Since the beginning of this year, Brent oil price has risen from $66 a barrel.
