Turkish shares flat at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Tuesday with only a 0.02 percent decrease at 108,594.45 points.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 20.42 points from Monday's close at 108,614.87 points, with a 5.9 billion Turkish lira ($1.68 billion) total trading volume.

Since the beginning of the year, the index has risen 39.6 percent and reached its highest level of all times, hitting 110,232.52 points on Aug. 15.

The banking and holding sector indexes were down by 0.51 and 0.11 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the BIST mining index was the best performer -- up 9.03 percent -- while the wood paper printing sector index performed worst with a 2.31 percent fall.

Stocks of mining company Koza Madencilik (KOZAA) were the top gainer on Tuesday with a 18.37 percent hike, while shares of CarrefourSA (CRFSA), which operates over 600 hypermarket stores in Turkey, suffered the largest decline of the day, falling 13.58 percent.

The BIST 100's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), Koza Madencilik (KOZAA), another mining and energy company Ipek Dogal Enerji (IPEKE), followed by private lender Garanti (GARAN) and investment trust Global Yatirim Holding (GLYHO).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 3.4970 by 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Tuesday, no change compared with Monday's close.

Last Friday, one dollar was traded for 3.5230 Turkish liras. The exchange rate saw its historic high in mid-January this year climbing to around 3.94 Turkish liras.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell by 0.39 percent while the price of gold per kilogram stood at 145,900 Turkish liras ($41,714) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), up from 145,250 Turkish liras ($41,547) at Monday's close.

The price of gold per kilogram was 146,800 Turkish liras ($41,691) at close on Friday, Aug. 18.