Turkey's Borsa Istanbul flat at close

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index fell 0.06 percent to stand at 99,269.27 points at Tuesday's closing.

Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index closed the day down 62.86 points with a total trading volume of 3.4 billion Turkish liras (approximately $962 million).

The banking and holding sectors went down 0.31 percent and 0.18 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the food and beverage sector index was the best performer -- up 2.46 percent -- while the mining sector saw the biggest decline, falling 2.66 percent.

Shares of Turkish conglomerate Ihlas Holding were the top gainer, up 5.26 percent in value, while stocks of Ipek Dogal Enerji, which operates in the energy sector, were the worst, losing 4.80 percent.

The five most-traded stocks were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Akbank, state lender Halkbank, and energy company Zorlu Enerji.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 3.5410 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) on Tuesday, compared with 3.5170 at Monday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell 0.22 percent while the price of gold per kilogram decreased to 142,300 Turkish liras (around $40,261) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).