Turkey’s shares fall, lira recovers Tuesday

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish shares ended lower Tuesday with losses in the banking and holding sectors driving shares down.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST-100, the country’s benchmark index, traded down 0.62 percent (499.23 points) to close at 79,433.31.

On the second trading day of the week, the banking sector index was down 0.89 percent while the holding sector index fell 1.18 percent.

The investment trust sector, on the other hand, was up 3.52 percent with a total trading volume of 4 billion Turkish liras ($1.30 billion).

The most heavily traded stocks were the national flag-carrier Turkish Airlines, state lender Halkbank, private lenders Akbank and Garanti Bank, and sports club Galatasaray.

Galatasaray was also the top percent gainer, with its shares gaining 14.02 percent in value.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index lost 0.10 percent in value with gold trading at 125,750 Turkish liras (approx. $41,000) per kilogram.

Meanwhile, the Turkish lira gained value against the U.S. dollar, standing at 3.07 compared to Monday's close of 3.0745 although the greenback was firm against global currencies in overseas markets amid rising prospects for a rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve.