Turkish stocks hit highest in 21-months at close

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the day up 1.32% to close at 115,932.05 points on Thursday.

Starting the first trading day of the New Year with a rise of 0.42% at 114,902.51 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index increased 1,507.10 points from Tuesday's close.

On Wednesday, the stock exchange market was closed due to the New Year's Day official holiday.

During Thursday's trading, the index hovered between 114,565.91 points and 115,488.08 points.

As of daily close, the total market value of the benchmark index was around 795 billion Turkish liras ($133 billion), with a daily trading volume of 12.3 billion Turkish liras (nearly $2 billion).

The highest trade volumes were recorded by national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, a mining company Koza Madencilik, and an energy company Ipek Dogal Enerji.

On Thursday, 78 stocks on the BIST 100 rose, 19 declined, and the remaining were flat compared with the previous close.

Stocks of Ipek Dogal Enerji saw the highest increase, up 10.36%, while shares of a freezer manufacturing company Klimasan showed the worst performance with a 3.71% drop.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, the price of one ounce of gold was around $1,520.00 by market close, versus $1,522.50 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil was around $66.28 per barrel as of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) on Thursday.