Turkish shares up over 1 pct at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Tuesday up 1.3 percent at 105,267.80 points with a 6.7 billion Turkish lira ($1.7 billion) trade volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 1,355.85 points, up from Monday's close at 103,911.94 points, while the banking and holding sector indices advanced by 0.04 and 1.59 percent, respectively.

On Tuesday, the BIST transportation index was the top gainer with a 4.74 percent hike and the BIST insurance index fell the most -- down 0.78 percent.

A real estate investment trust company Kiler GMYO (KLGYO) enjoyed the best performance as its shares went up 15.90 percent while stocks of a major textile manufacturer Mavi Giyim (MAVI) suffered the biggest drop of the day, falling 3.01 percent.

Tuesday's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), private lender Garanti (GARAN), defense company Aselsan (ASELS), followed by iron/steel producer Karabuk Kardemir (KRDMD) and state lender Halkbank (HALKB).

The USD/TRY rate hits its all-time peak before Tuesday noon at around 3.97. One dollar traded for 3.9560 liras as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT), climbed from 3.9180 at Monday's close.

By market close, the euro/lira exchange rate also rose to 4.6400, compared with Monday's close at 4.6130.

The BIST Gold Exchange index fell one percent while one kilogram gold traded at 162,250 Turkish liras ($40,966) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Tuesday, down from Monday's closing price of 162,750 Turkish liras ($41,530).

The price of Brent oil was $62.66 per barrel as of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) Tuesday, compared with $61.73 at Monday's close.