Turkish stocks hit all-time high at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 1,490.68-point hike to reach its all-time record high of 95,323.38 points on Tuesday.

BIST 100 index soared 1.59 percent with a total trading volume of 5.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.4 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 3.5940 liras as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Tuesday, compared with 3.56 liras at Monday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index went down by 1.29 percent while the price of gold per kilogram was 141,750 Turkish liras ($39,492) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), down from 141,300 Turkish liras ($39,550) at Monday's close.

On the second trading day of the week, the banking and holding indexes soared 1.69 and 1.31 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the basic metal sector index was the best performer with an increase of 4.31 percent while the information technology sector index declined the most, by 1.98 percent.

Shares of investment trust Global Yatirim (GLYHO), which has infrastructure, real estate, energy and financial services interests in Turkey, advanced the most on Tuesday -- up 5 percent -- while stocks of software producer Logo (LOGO) saw the largest drop, falling 4.3 percent.

The top traded stocks were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, prominent mobile operator Turkcell, state lender Halkbank and private lender Akbank.

On Tuesday, Turkish retail sales grew 2.1 percent in March from the previous month, boosted by rises in electronics, furniture, textiles, clothing and footwear sales, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.