Turkey’s stocks fall but lira recovers on Tuesday

ANKARA (AA) – Turkish stocks lost 0.98 percent on Tuesday after gaining 0.31 percent on Monday, with losses in banking, transport and holding sectors propelling shares lower.

Shares on the Borsa Istanbul national 100-share index ended the day down 765.44 points at 77,707.13, but the Turkish lira recovered against the U.S. dollar.

On the second trading day of the week, the banking index lost about 1.40 percent and the transport index and holding index were also down 4.58 percent and 0.30 percent, respectively.

The mining sector ended 2.70 percent higher for the day with a total trading volume of 3.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.1 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's most actively traded stock was Garanti Bank, whose shares lost 1.27 percent after gaining nearly one percent on previous trading to 7.78 liras.

Heavily-traded national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO) shares lost sharply by 4.83 percent to 5.32 liras.

The one of largest winners was Koza Gold (Kozal), which saw an increase of 5.12 percent or 0.49 points to trade at 10.06 liras in late trading.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index rose 2.27 percent in value Tuesday, with gold trading at 127,100 Turkish liras per kilogram.

The Turkish lira on Tuesday was trading marginally higher against the U.S. dollar as the greenback was weak against other emerging currencies after hopes of an interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve this year waned.

The lira rose to 2.9240 against the dollar, the highest value since July 15, while the benchmark 10-year government bond yield remained flat at 9.42 percent

On Tuesday, Turkish Airlines, the country’s national flag-carrier, announced it had increased its total number of passengers by 4.4 percent in the first seven months of 2016 compared to the same period of the previous year.

The total number of passengers during the Jan.-July period was 35.9 million compared to 34.4 million in the same period of 2015, according to a statement from the company.

Meanwhile, the treasury raised 1.86 billion Turkish liras ($635.8 million) Tuesday through running a bond auction.

The auction was for 10-year Fixed Bond Coupons (semiannually, re-open) which will be issued on Wednesday, Aug. 17, and will mature on Feb. 11, 2026. They were sold at 9.5 percent simple interest and 9.72 percent compound interest.