Turkey's Borsa Istanbul up at closing session

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the day up 0.22 percent to reach 112,006.65 points on Tuesday, with a total trading volume of 3.7 billion Turkish liras (nearly $972 million).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index gained 241.65 points from Monday's close of 111,765.00 points.

The banking sector index rose by 0.34 percent while the holding sector index dropped by 0.09 percent.

Among all sectors, the mining sector index was the top performer -- up 6 percent -- while the basic metal sector index suffered the biggest drop, 1.62 percent.

The stocks of gold miner Koza Altin performed the best, up 8.8 percent, while the prominent polyester producer Sasa Polyester'a stocks suffered the most, falling 6.32 percent.

The top five most-traded stocks were iron and steel producer Kardemir, polyester producer Sasa Polyester, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, gold miner Koza Altin and mining company Ipek Dogal Enerji.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 3.8070 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Tuesday, down from 3.8110 at Monday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate increased to 4.5140 by market close, up from Monday's close at 4.5080.

The BIST Gold Exchange index gained 0.08 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram reached 156,850 Turkish liras (around $41,199) as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT), compared with Monday's closing price of 156,100 liras ($40,958).

As of 6.00 p.m. local time (1500GMT) Tuesday, the price of Brent oil was $64.91 per barrel, versus $64.73 at the previous close.