Turkish stocks hit all-time high at Wednesday close

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index hit an all-time high on Wednesday to close at 1,417.66 points, up 0.90%.

After starting the day at 1,410.67 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 12.69 points from 1,404.97 points at Tuesday's close.

On Wednesday, the BIST 100 hovered between 1,409.15 and 1,419.21 points -- 80 stocks on the index rose and 18 fell compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of some one trillion Turkish liras ($137 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 28.1 billion Turkish liras ($3.7 billion).

The highest trading volumes were posted by private lenders Garanti BBVA and Sekerbank, and petrochemical company Petkim.

Celebi, active in airport ground operations, was the best performer, with its shares up 10%, while stocks of real estate trust investment firm Halk GYO dropped the most, losing 9.90%.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,860.65 by market close, down from $1,872.60 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $50.75 per barrel as of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) on Wednesday.