Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index went down 0.20 percent to close at 116,709.93 points on Tuesday, with a total trading volume of 7.04 billion Turkish liras ($1.85 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index lost 236.29 points, while the banking and holding sectors indices rose 1.02 percent and 0.17 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the textile leather sector index was the best performer, rising 2.62 percent, while the transportation sector index performed the worst, down by 6.76 percent.

The shares of conglomerate Metro Holding were the top gainers of the day, up 5.94 percent, while stocks of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines suffered the most, falling 8.17 percent.

The day's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, gold miner Koza Altin, iron/steel producer Kardemir and petrochemicals producer Petkim.

On Monday, the BIST 100 rose slightly 0.07 percent or 87.03 points to close at 116,946.22 points. The trade volume was 4.49 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.17 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange dropped to 3.7900 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Tuesday, compared to Monday's close at 3.8210.

The euro/lira exchange rate stood at 4.7030 on Tuesday, from the previous close of 4.7030.

The BIST Gold Exchange index gained 0.23 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram reached to 161,900 Turkish liras (around $42,718) as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT), up from 162,500 liras ($42,887) at Monday's close.

As of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) Tuesday, the price of Brent oil rose to $65.58 per barrel, versus $64.95 at the previous close.