Update - Turkey's Benchmark Stock İndex Flat At Close

Turkey's benchmark stock index rose by 0.02 percent to close at 112,122.15 points on Thursday with around 7.7 billion Turkish lira ($1.9 billion) trade volume.



Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 23.14-point rise from Wednesday's close of 112,099.01 points, while it opened the day at 112,111.56 points with a 0.01 percent rise.



On Wednesday, the BIST 100 rallied -- up 3.08 percent -- at daily close, following Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a plan to hold early presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24, instead of November 2019.



During trading hours, the benchmark index hovered between 111,597.37 points and 112,406.55 points, while 55 stocks on the index were on the rise, 38 on the decline and seven flat compared with the previous close. The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 699.15 billion Turkish liras ($170.67 billion) at daily close.



The banking and holding sector indices went down by 0.37 and 0.08 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the leasing factoring sector index increased the most with a 6.14 percent hike and the BIST food beverage index fell the most, falling 1.03 percent.



Stocks of Kipa Ticaret (KIPA), operating supermarkets, recorded the best performance -- up 19.75 percent -- while shares of energy company Ayen Enerji (AYEN) suffered the biggest drop, falling 3.04 percent.



The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies remained same as Wednesday's list -- national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, lenders Garanti and Halkbank, iron/steel producer Kardemir and polyester producer Sasa.



The USD/TRY exchange flat at 4.0290 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, versus 4.0500 at Wednesday's close.



The euro/lira exchange rate fell to 4.9910 by market close -- down from 5.0190 at the previous close -- and one British pound traded for 5.7490 Turkish liras while the GBP/TRY rate was 5.7830 at the previous close.



The BIST Gold Exchange index declined by 0.36 percent at the daily close. In the Precious Metals and Diamond Markets of Borsa Istanbul, one ounce of gold traded for $1,347.50 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Thursday, compared with $1,352.30 at Wednesday's close.



As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $74.37 per barrel -- hovering between $73.67 and $74.75 during Thursday -- climbing from around $66 at the beginning of this year. -