Turkey's benchmark stock index up over 1 pct at close

Turkey's benchmark stock index rose 1.14 percent to close at 93,747.65 points on Thursday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 92,272.08 points and ended the day with a 1,055.48-point hike from the previous close.

The BIST 100's daily peak was 93,765.56 points, while it fell to 91,958.23 points on Thursday.

Compared with the previous close, 53 stocks on the index rose, 43 fell, and four were flat.

The BIST 100's daily trade volume was around 6 billion liras ($1.06 billion), while national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti Bankasi, iron and steel producer Kardemir, defense company Aselsan and another lender Akbank recorded the highest trade volumes.

The benchmark index had a total market value of some 611.5 billion liras ($107 billion) at close, as the leading companies were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($6.90 billion), iron and steel producer Eregli Demir Celik ($5.85 billion), and energy giant Tupras ($5.82 billion).

Shares of gold miner Koza Altin showed the best performance, rising 5.38 percent, while stocks of Turkish conglomerate Ittifak Holding (ITTFH) went down 8.22 percent, the worst performance on Thursday.

Among all sectors, the BIST mining index recorded the highest increase, up 4.36 percent, and the biggest drop was posted by the BIST leasing factoring index with a 3.21-percent decline.

At the daily close, one dollar traded for 5.6490 liras, while the USD/TRY exchange rate was 5.6950 at Wednesday's close.

Standing at 6.5030 at the previous close, the euro/lira rate fell to 6.4420 by market close on Thursday.

The GBP/TRY exchange rate was 7.2750, as one British pound was traded for 7.3820 Turkish liras at close on Wednesday.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold was sold for $1,231.50 at Thursday's close, stable compared to $1,231.00 at the previous close.

Hovering between $75.36 and $76.83 during Thursday's trading, the price of Brent oil was around $76.60 per barrel as of 6.25 p.m. local time (1525GMT).

One barrel of Brent oil was sold for $66 at the beginning of this year.