Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index dropped by 0.28 percent to close at 114,494.50 points on Tuesday, with a total trading volume of 5.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.34 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index lost 327.10 points, while the banking and holding sectors indices fell 0.37 percent and 1.02 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the basic metal sector index was the best performer, rising 1.63 percent, while the sports sector index performed the worst, down by 2.23 percent.

Shares of conglomerate Koc Holding’s defense company Otokar were the top gainers of the day, up 5.73 percent, while stocks of Turkish conglomerate Bera Holding suffered the most, falling 20 percent.

The top five most traded stocks were the national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, iron and steel producer Kardemir, leading defense company Aselsan and another private lender Akbank.

On Monday, the BIST 100 went up over 1 percent -- 1,231.32 points -- to close at 114,821.60 points. The trade volume was 5.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.34 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange stood at 3.8050 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Tuesday, compared to Monday's close at 3.8080.

The euro/lira exchange rate climbed to 4.6980 on Tuesday, from 4.6650 the previous close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index gained 0.86 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram reached to 162,090 Turkish liras ($42,641) as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT), up from 161,500 liras ($42,485) at Monday's close.

As of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) Tuesday, the price of Brent oil was $62.11 per barrel, versus $63.27 at the previous close.