Turkish Stocks Close Higher

Turkey's benchmark stock index increased by 0.15 percent to close at 107,206.16 points on Wednesday.



Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index closed the day up 165.49 points with a total trading volume of 4.6 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.3billion).



The banking sector decreased by 0.19 percent. Among all sectors, the mining index was the best performer -- up 5.4percent -- while the transport sector suffered the worst performance, dropping by 0.78 percent.



Stocks of Ihlas holding (IHLAS) gained the most, with a 15.22 percent rise, while Tesco Kipa (KIPA) suffered the biggest decline, with its shares going down 3.32 percent.



The most active stocks of the day Turkish Airlines (THYAO) and lenders Garanti (GARAN) and Mobile operator Turkcell (TCELL) followed by real estate investment trust Emlak Konut(EKGYO)



The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 3.55 as of 7 p.m. (1600GMT) on Wednesday, compared with 3.5635 at Tuesday's close.



Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell 0.32 percent while the price of gold per kilogram stood at 142,500 Turkish liras (some $40,115) as of 4.30 p.m . -