Turkey's Borsa Istanbul sees record high at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index hit its highest level of 97,717.48 points at close on Tuesday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index advanced 1,317.45 points or 1.37 percent with a total trading volume of 5.8 billion Turkish liras ($1.63 billion).

On the second trading day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices climbed 1.93 percent and 1.74 percent, respectively.

The banking sector index also saw its highest level since February 2015 during the day with 167,037 points.

Among all indices, the transport sector was the best performer, up 3.16 percent, while the tourism index was the worst, down 2.79 percent.

Stocks of Cemtas Celik Makina (CEMTS), which operates in the steel industry, performed the best on Tuesday -- up by 6.20 percent -- while shares of major chemical and paint producer Polisan Holding (POLHO) suffered the largest decline of the day, falling 3.59 percent.

The five most-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, leading polyester producer Sasa, private lender Garanti, state lender Halkbank and Turkish defense giant Aselsan.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate increased to 3.5610 Turkish liras as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) on Tuesday, compared with 3.5570 Turkish liras at Monday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell by 0.79 percent while the price of gold per kilogram increased to 144,500 Turkish liras (around $40,523) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

Meanwhile, Turkey received $1.6 billion in foreign direct investment in March, according to the Economy Ministry on Tuesday.

In the first quarter, foreign direct investment in Turkey advanced by two percent year-on-year to reach $2.8 billion, the ministry said.

Confidence in Turkey's services, retail trade and construction sectors advanced in May compared with the previous month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Tuesday.

The retail trade confidence index reached 102.8 points in May, up 1.1 percent from the previous month as sales improved.

The services sector index advanced by 2.1 percent to 102.2 in May from 99.9 in April, according to TurkStat.

The Highways Directorate said Turkey earned over 443 million liras (more than $124 million) in tolls in the first four months of 2017.

The July 15 Martyrs' Bridge and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, connecting Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus, reaped around 115.5 million liras ($32.3 million), while highway tolls throughout Turkey yielded almost 328 million liras ($91.8 million) from January to April, according to the Highways Directorate.