Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed down 0.12 percent to stand at 106,710.52 points on Monday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 133.27 points with a total trading volume of 4.6 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.29 billion).

The BIST 100 closed last week with a 1.58 percent weekly increase at 106,842.79 points at Friday's close on July 21.

The banking sector index went down 0.34 percent while the holding sector index stood flat with a 0.08 percent hike.

The mining sector was Monday's best performer -- up 3 percent -- while the food beverage index did the worst, declining 0.69 percent.

Shares of wholesale trade company Bizim Magazalari (BIZIM) gained the most on Monday, increasing 5.54 percent while stocks of telecommunication company Alcatel Lucent Teletas (ALCTL) suffered the biggest drop, 4.71 percent.

The five most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), private lender Garanti (GARAN), real estate investment trust Emlak Konut GMYO (EKGYO), followed by major defense systems company Aselsan (ASELS) and iron-steel producer Kardemir Karabuk (KRDMD).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate increased to 3.5560 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) on Monday, compared to 3.5320 at Friday’s close.

On the first trading day of the week, Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index advanced 0.86 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram climbed to 143,550 Turkish liras (some $40,439) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), up from 141,800 Turkish liras (around $40,184) at Friday's close.