Turkish stocks up 1.8% at Tuesday's close

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the week at 89,643.71 points on Tuesday, up 1.8% from the previous close.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 89,278.67 points. As of the daily close, it increased 1,584.25 points from Monday's close of 88,059.46 points.

During the day, the index hovered between 89,038.59, points and 90,268.60 points.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 618 billion Turkish liras ($94 billion) by market close, with a daily volume of 9.3 billion Turkish liras ($1.4 billion).

On the second day of the week, 53 stocks on the index rose, two were down and the remaining were flat compared to Monday.

The highest trading volumes were posted by flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti and pharmaceuticals company Eczacibasi Ilac.

Polyester producer Sasa was the best performer, with its shares up 9.9%, while investment bank Is Yatirim dropped the most, losing 2.6%.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,600.55 by market close, up from $1,626.00 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $26.40 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Tuesday.