Turkish stocks down at year-end close

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the last business day of 2019 down 0.29% to close at 114,424.96 points on Tuesday.

Starting the day at 115,072.05 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index decreased 329.02 points from Monday's close.

The Index improved by almost 25.37% year-on-year, especially in rally over the last two months, compensating for almost all losses in 2018.

On Wednesday, the stock exchange market will be closed due to the New Year's Day official holiday.

The BIST 100 peaked at 115,312.01 points -- the highest level since April 2018-- while its daily low was 114,418.57 points during Tuesday's trading.

As of daily close, the total market value of the benchmark index was around 781 billion Turkish liras ($131 billion), with a daily trading volume of 9 billion Turkish liras ($1.5 billion).

The highest trade volumes were recorded by national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, a defense giant Aselsan, and petrochemical producer Petkim.

On Tuesday, 38 stocks on the BIST 100 rose, 55 declined, and the remaining were flat compared with the previous close.

Stocks of Odas, an electric company saw the highest increase, up 5.03%, while shares of a leasing company Is Finans Kiralama showed the worst performance with a 3.80% drop.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, the price of one ounce of gold was around $1,522.50 by market close, versus $1,512.00 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil was around $65.94 per barrel as of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) on Tuesday.