Turkish stocks close at record high

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day by jumping 685.49 points to hit a historic high of 101,207.79 points on Tuesday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose by 0.68 percent with a total trading value of 4.5 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.3 billion).

The banking and holding sector indices advanced by 1.37 and 0.89 percent, respectively.

Among all indices, the mining sector index was the best performer, up 3.80 percent, while the leasing and factoring sector index was the worst, down 0.37 percent.

The stocks of Ipek Dogal Enerji, which operates in the energy sector, enjoyed the biggest rise on Tuesday, up 9.84 percent, while the stocks of Alcatel Lucent Teletas, a telecommunication company, saw a 4.33 percent decrease, marking the biggest drop of the day.

The five most-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, other lender Akbank, iron and steel producer Kardemir and mining company Koza Madencilik.

The BIST 100 was up 81.91 points or 0.08 percent to close at 100,522.30 points on Monday, with a total trading volume of 3.8 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.07 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 3.5620 Turkish liras as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) on Tuesday, up from 3.5480 Turkish liras at Monday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell by 0.25 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram rose to 140,000 Turkish liras (around $39,314) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).