Borsa Istanbul up at opening session

By Can Erozden

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index rose 0.20 percent or 241.84 points to open at 119,033.75 points on Tuesday.

The banking and holding sector indices gained value by 0.37 percent and 0.33 percent, respectively.

All sector indices went up Tuesday and tourism sector index was the best performer -- up by 1.21 percent.

Economic confidence in Turkey slipped month-on-month in February, falling 1.8 percent, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Tuesday.

The economic confidence index dropped to 103, down from 104.9 in January.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate slightly declined to 3.7840 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Monday's closing rate of 3.7860.

The euro/lira rate went up to 4.6670 on Tuesday morning, compared with 4.6610 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil was $67.22 per barrel as of 09.50 a.m. local time (0650GMT) Tuesday, versus $66.69 at the close of Monday.