UPDATE - Turkey's Borsa Istanbul hits historic high at close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index on Tuesday hit the highest closing level in its history, a record 121,423.34 points, up 0.98% from the previous close.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 120,392.65 points. As of the daily close, it earned 1,174.31 points from last week's close of 120,249.03 points.

Analysts said the markets are feeling the positive effects of improvements in macroeconomic indicators such as inflation, CDS premiums, and GDP.

During the day, the index hovered between 119,574.71 points and 121,504.40 points. The index has been rising for 10 consecutive weeks.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 832.7 billion Turkish liras ($142.3 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 14 billion Turkish liras ($2.4 billion).

On the second transaction day of the week, 66 stocks on the index rose, 29 were down, and five were flat compared to Monday.

The highest trading volumes were posted by national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, iron/steel producer Kardemir and chemical producer Petkim.

Agricultural company Hektas was the best performer, with its shares up 8.47%, while coated cardboard producer Kartonsan dropped the most, down 3%.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,546.20 by market close, down from $1,550 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $64.60 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) on Tuesday.