Turkish shares close at nearly 27-month high

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 719.98-point hike to reach 91,373.78 points on Tuesday, almost the highest close of the last 27 months.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index advanced by 0.79 percent with a total trading volume of 5 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.35 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate slightly increased to 3.6840 liras as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Tuesday, compared with 3.6640 liras at Monday's close.

One dollar was exchanged for 3.6920 liras last Friday, April 14, after seeing a historic hike -- around 3.94 liras -- in mid-January.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell by 0.31 percent while the price of gold per kilogram was 152,500 Turkish liras (around $41,375) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), up from 151,300 Turkish liras (around $41,230) at Monday's close.

On the second day of the week, the banking and holding indexes rose 1.41 and 0.85 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the mining index was the best performer with an increase of 2.90 percent while the leasing factoring sector was the worst, falling 1.07 percent.

Shares of Turkish conglomerate Alarko Holding (ALARK) enjoyed a 4.74 percent rise -- Tuesday's highest. A major chemical and paint producer Polisan Holding (POLHO) suffered the biggest drop of the day with a 5.41 percent decline.

The five most traded stocks were lenders Garanti, Halkbank and Akbank, followed by national flag carrier Turkish Airlines plus another lender Vakifbank.