Turkish stocks end day down

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index went down 2.08 percent to close at 93,506.22 points on Thursday.

Starting the day at 95,521.71 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 1,987.08-point fall from Wednesday's close.

The BIST 100 hovered between 93,258.07 and 95,641.80 points during Thursday's trading. Compared to the previous close, 20 stocks on the index rose and 80 fell.

At closing, the leading shares of the BIST 100 by market capitalization were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($7.32 billion), private lender Garanti Bankasi ($6.21 billion), and iron and steel producer Eregli Demir Celik ($5.88 billion). The total market value of the benchmark index was around 610 billion liras ($114 billion).

The total trading volume of the benchmark index was 7.55 billion liras ($1.39 billion), while the highest trade volumes posted by national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, lenders Garanti Bankasi and Halkbank, telecommunication company Turk Telekom, defense company Aselsan.

Stocks of Gentas (GENTS), operating in wooden products market, posted the largest decline with a 13.23-percent drop, and shares of Turkish conglomerate Ittifak Holding (ITTFH) climbed the most on Thursday, rising 4.57 percent.

Among all sectors, the BIST leasing factoring index showed the top performance, up 2.56 percent, as the BIST chemical petrol plastic index fell 5.95 percent -- worst of the day.

By market close, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira (USD/TRY) exchange rate was 5.4160, versus 5.3650 at the previous close.

The euro/lira rate rose to 6.2060, compared with 6.1630 at Wednesday's close.

The GBP/TRY rate stands at 7.1130 at close, up from 7.0630 liras at the previous close.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold was sold for $1,224 at Thursday's close, down from $1,233 at Wednesday's close.

Hovering between $71.31 and $73.08 during the day, the price of Brent oil was around $71.88 per barrel as of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) Thursday.

At the beginning of this year, one barrel of Brent oil sold for $66.