Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index was down 231.38 points to close at 90,813.61 on Tuesday, after hitting a 25-month high of 91,044.99 points at Monday's close.

The BIST 100 index declined 0.25 percent with a total trading volume of four billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.09 billion).

On the second day of the week, the banking index fell the most -- down 1.10 percent -- while the holding index dropped 0.66 percent. Among all sector indexes, the wholesale and retail trade sector was the top performer, rising 4.67 percent.

The most heavily-traded stocks were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, lenders Halkbank and Is Bankasi plus business conglomerate Metro Holding.

Shares of another business conglomerate, Ihlas Holding (IHLAS) were the best performer of the day with an increase of 7.50 percent.

Stocks of Metro Holding (METRO), heavily involved in tourism, food processing, real estate, mining, and energy sectors, suffered the biggest drop of the day, going down 14.38 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell below 3.68. One dollar was worth 3.6760 liras as of 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) Tuesday, compared to 3.7100 at Monday's closing.

The dollar traded for 3.7250 liras last Friday, March 3, after seeing a historic hike -- over 3.90 liras -- in mid-January.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index lost 0.61 percent while the price of gold per kilogram was down to 144,850 Turkish liras (around $39,396) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), compared to 147,030 Turkish liras (around $39,590) at Monday's closing.