Turkish Stocks Down At Close

Turkey's benchmark stock index went down 0.69 percent to 106,976.67 points at Thursday's close with a trade volume of 6.9 billion Turkish lira ($1.8 billion).



Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 739.84 points from Wednesday's close.



The banking sector index was down 0.08 percent, while the holding sector rose 0.05 percent. Among all sectors, the BIST construction index was the top gainer, up 0.57 percent, while the tourism sector saw the largest decline, going down 2.76 percent.



Stocks of Turkish defense company Aselsan suffered the biggest drop -- down 19.34 percent -- while shares of state lender Halkbank performed the best, up 5.87 percent.



Thursday's most-traded stocks were Aselsan, Halkbank, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti Bankasi, and electronics/appliances manufacturer Vestel.



The BIST Gold Exchange index dropped 0.31 percent, while one kilogram gold traded at 158,900 Turkish liras ($41.077) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT).



The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 3.8600 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday from 3.8800 at Wednesday's close, while one euro traded for 4.5490 liras -- down from 4.5930 at market close on Wednesday. -