Turkey's Borsa Istanbul flat at close

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index was down 0.06 percent to close at 110,177.11 points on Tuesday, with a total trading volume of 5.9 billion Turkish liras ($1.5 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index lost 70.78 points from Monday's close of 110,247.89 points.

The banking and holding sectors indices fell by 0.45 percent and 0.21 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the leasing and factoring sector index was the top performer -- up 3.55 percent -- while the real estate investment trust sector index suffered the biggest drop, going down 1.51 percent.

The stocks of private lender Sekerbank performed the best, up 20 percent, while real estate investment trust Emlak Konut GMYO's stocks were the worst performer, falling 2.85 percent.

The top five most-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, iron and steel producer Kardemir, state lender Halkbank, mining firm Koza Madencilik and top oil refinery Tupras.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate declined to 3.8270 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Tuesday, down from 3.8400 at Monday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also dropped to 4.5260 by market close, down from Monday's close of 4.5310.

The BIST Gold Exchange index gained 0.45 percent in value with the price of gold per kilogram reaching 156,000 Turkish liras (around $40,681) as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT), compared with Monday's closing price of 155,800 Turkish liras ($40,562).

As of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) Tuesday, the price of Brent oil was $63.74 per barrel, versus $63.41 at the previous close.