Turkish stocks go into holiday above 110K points

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Thursday down 412.62 points to stand at 110,010.49 points, before going into four-and-a-half-day break for the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Adha.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day flat with a 0.05 percent hike to open at 110.482,17 points, after posting its highest close on Tuesday.

After profit takings, the BIST 100 fell 0.37 percent, compared to 110,423.11 points of Tuesday's close, since there were no transactions on Wednesday due to Turkey’s official Victory Day holiday.

Total trading volume of the benchmark index was two billion Turkish liras (some 577 million) -- a relatively low level compared to recent weeks' volume. The stock exchange market will open next Tuesday, Sept. 5.

During the half-day transactions, the banking and holding sector indexes were down 0.82 and 0.28 percent respectively.

Among all sectors, the BIST sports index performed the best -- up 2.98 percent -- while the mining sector index dropped 1.33 percent, the largest decline of Thursday.

Shares of Galatasaray Sportif, a major Turkish sports club, enjoyed the biggest rise of the day with a 13.13 percent increase and stocks of food giant Ulker Biskuvi fell most, going down 2.27 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded stocks were Galatasaray Sportif, telecommunication company Turkcell, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti and oil refiner TUPRAS.

Since the beginning of this year, the BIST 100 has risen 41.5 percent, compared to a close of 77,754.46 points on Jan. 2.

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 3.4620 by 2 p.m. local time (1100GMT) Thursday, compared with 3.4520 at Wednesday's close.

One dollar was exchanged for 3.4590 Turkish liras last Friday. The dollar-lira rate saw its historic high in mid-January this year, climbing to around 3.94.