Turkish stocks up over 1 pct at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Tuesday up 1.18 percent to stand at 110,148.45 points with 8 billion Turkish liras ($2.05 billion) trade volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 1,288.83 points.

The banking and holding sector indices advanced by 2.10 and 1.06 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the transportation sector was the top gainer with a 6.07 percent hike and the BIST electricity index fell 1.56 percent, the biggest drop on Tuesday.

Shares of Turkish defense company Aselsan rose the most -- up 7.51 percent -- while private lender ICBC Turkish Bank suffered the largest decline of the day, as its stocks dropped 19.15 percent.

Stocks with the highest trade volume were Aselsan, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, followed by iron and steel producer Kardemir Karabuk and real estate electronics/appliances manufacturer Vestel.

The BIST Gold Exchange index went down 0.23 percent, while one kilogram gold traded at 158,520 Turkish liras ($40.7) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 3.8770 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Tuesday, compared with 3.8860 at Monday’s close.

On the second day of the week, the EUR/TRY rate also increased to 4.5580 by market close while one euro traded for 4.5330 liras at Monday's close.