UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES
By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Thursday up 1.16 percent to close at 100,298.73 points — the highest close over the past four months.
Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index recorded a 1,149.88-point hike from Wednesday's close of 99,148.85 points, while it started the day at 99,083.90 points.
The BIST 100 hovered between 98,934.15 and 100,637.70 points, as 53 stocks on the index rose, 34 fell, and 13 were flat compared to Wednesday's close.
Among all sector indices, the BIST banking index was the best performer — up 3.72 percent — while the BIST mining index fell the most, going down 2.25 percent.
Shares of real estate investment trust Ozak (OZKGY) were the top gainers, rising 9.77 percent, and stocks of Tofas (TOASO), which operates in the field of automotive, suffered the biggest drop, falling 5.61 percent.
On a daily basis, the market value of listed stocks on the BIST 100 amounted to some 655 billion Turkish liras ($107 billion) with a total trade volume of 11.17 billion Turkish liras ($1.84 billion).
Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding was the most valuable company with around $7.06 billion of market capitalization, followed by iron and steel producer Eregli Demir Celik ($6.43 billion) and energy giant Tupras ($5.54 billion).
Top listed companies with regards to trade volume were private lender Garanti, telecommunication giant Turk Telekom, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, top defense company Aselsan, and another private lender Akbank.
– Lira gains ground against foreign currencies
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell below 6.00, its lowest level over the past four weeks.
By market close, one dollar traded for 5.9950 liras, versus 6.1070 at Wednesday's close.
The euro/lira rate stood at 7.0250, down from 7.1700 at the previous close, while one British pound traded for 7.8920 Turkish liras, versus 8.0610.
In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,195.50 at Thursday's close, compared with $1,195.00 at the close on Wednesday.
As of 6.25 p.m. local time (1525GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at around $81.14 per barrel, hovering between $80.85 and $81.89 during Thursday.
Since the beginning of this year, Brent oil price has risen from $66 a barrel.
