Turkish stocks go up at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark index increased 516.41 points to close at 106,990.87 points on Tuesday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index went up by 0.49 percent with a 5.1 billion Turkish lira ($1.39 billion) trade volume.

The BIST banking and holding indexes were up 0.01 percent and 0.43 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the leasing, factoring index advanced the most with a 3.59 percent hike, while the basic metal sector index fell the most with a 0.77 percent.

The BIST 100 stocks with the highest trade volume were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), iron and steel producer Kardemir Karabuk (KRDMD), a major diesel engine and tractor manufacturer Tumosan Motor (TMSN), followed by private lender Garanti (GARAN) and mobile operator Turkcell (TCELL).

Shares of Tumosan Motor, were the best performer of the day, rising 13.76 percent while stocks of poultry and feed producer Banvit, saw the largest decline of the day, falling 3.51 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira rate stood at 3.6640 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Tuesday, a climb from 3.6370 at Monday's close.

On Tuesday, the BIST Gold Exchange index was down by 1.26 percent while the price of gold per kilogram was 151,600 Turkish liras ($41,421) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT).