Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down 3 pct at close

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Tuesday down 3.00 percent at 96,274.69 points with a trading volume of around 11.6 billion Turkish liras ($2.5 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 2,978.15-point drop from the previous close of 99,252.84 points, while it opened the day at 97,650.95 points, down 1.61 percent.

The USD/TRY exchange rate rose to 4.6990 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Tuesday, up from 4.5880 at Monday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also climbed to 5.5020 by market close, versus 5.3960 at the previous close, and one British pound was traded at 6.2370 Turkish liras, compared to 6.0990 at Monday's close.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,249 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Tuesday, compared with $1,265 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil reached $78.66 per barrel as of 18.00 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on the second transaction day's closing, compared with $77.75 at the end of Monday.