ANKARA: Turkish shares closed lower Tuesday, with losses in the banking and food sectors driving shares down. Borsa Istanbul’s BIST-100, the country’s benchmark index, closed down 0.79 percent (619.66 points) at 77,333.61.
On the second trading day of the week, the banking sector index lost about 0.64 percent and the food sector index was also down 2.38 percent. But the mining sector ended 0.48 percent higher for the day, with a total trading volume of 3.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.05 billion). Borsa Istanbul’s most actively traded stocks were Garanti Bank, Turkish Airlines, state lender Halkbank, private lender Akbank, and Tekfen Holding.
One of the biggest winners was Tekfen Holding, which saw an increase of 16.57 percent or 1.10 points to trade at 7.74, after its Tekfen Construction division signed a preliminary agreement with Qatar for a $2.1 billion highway project. The 36-month project aims to build a 10-lane, 34-kilometer highway along with viaducts, road junctions, overpasses, and underpasses, according to the company.
