Turkey's Borsa Istanbul flat at close but remains high

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index was flat with a 0.03 percent decline to close at 112,994.86 points on Thursday.

During the trading hours of Borsa Istanbul equity market, the BIST 100 index climbed to its all-time peak at 114,539.84 points, recording a 8.6 billion Turkish lira (around $2.25 billion) trade volume.

The benchmark index then went down 29.41 points, compared with the BIST 100's highest close at 113,024.27 points on Wednesday, as the index has surged above 45 percent since the beginning of 2017.

On Thursday, the BIST banking index was also flat with a 0.02 percent fall while the holding sector index rose by 1.10 percent.

The chemical petrol plastic sector index rose the most with a 1.37 percent hike and the BIST telecommunication index fell 4.10 percent, the biggest drop of the day.

The BIST 100 top five most traded stocks were Karsan Otomotiv (KARSN), a major electronics/appliances manufacturer Vestel (VESTL), national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), iron and steel producer Kardemir Karabuk (KRDMD) and telecommunication giant Turkcell (TCELL).

On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that five automotive supplier firms -- Anadolu Group, BMC, Kiraca Holding, Turkcell, and Zorlu Holding -- would jointly manufacture the first Turkish car made domestically.

Zorlu Holding's Vestel (VESTL) saw the biggest drop on Thursday, as price of its shares went down 13.88 percent after gaining the most on Wednesday -- a 11.54 percent rise.

Stocks of Hurriyet Gazetecilik (HURGZ), one of Turkey's bestselling daily newspapers, showed the best performance on Thursday, going up 5.97 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was stable around 3.8150 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, down from 3.8210 at Wednesday close.

The EUR/TRY exchange rate stood at 4.4470 by market close, rose from Wednesday's close at 4.4370.

Meanwhile, the BIST Gold Exchange index fell 0.33 percent while one kilogram gold traded at 156,180 Turkish liras ($41,021) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), compared with Wednesday's closing price of 155,400 Turkish liras ($40,691).

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) Thursday, Brent oil price was $60.48 per barrel compared with $60.90 at Wednesday's close.