By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index went up 0.63 percent to close at 114,844.56 points on Thursday, with a total trading volume of 6.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.55 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index earned 715.26 points, while the banking and holding sector indices increased 1.68 percent and 0.91 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the sports sector index was the best performer, rising 4.43 percent, while the chemical petrol plastic sector index performed the worst, down by 5 percent.

Stocks of the prominent Turkey's prominent sport club Galatasaray were the top gainers of the day, up 10.14 percent, while stocks of engine and tractor manufacturer Tumosan suffered the most, falling 5.68 percent.

The day's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, oil refinery Tupras, polyester producer Sasa and leading GSM operator Turkcell.

On Wednesday, the BIST 100 decreased 1.78 percent or 2,067.24 points to close at 114,129.30 points. The trade volume was 7.6 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.9 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange dropped by over 1 percent to 3.9680 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Thursday, compared to Wednesday's close at 4.0120.

The euro/lira exchange rate also decreased 1.3 percent to 4.8950 on Thursday, from the previous close of 4.9600.

The BIST Gold Exchange index lost 1.12 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram reached to 168,800 Turkish liras (around $42,583) as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT), down from 172,350 liras ($42,040) at Wednesday's close.

As of 6.00 p.m. local time (1500GMT) Thursday, the price of Brent oil stood at $69.09 per barrel, compared with $69.03 at the previous close.

Turkey's GDP growth rate rose by 7.4 percent year-on-year in 2017 and 7.3 percent in the last quarter of the year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Thursday.