Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index went down 1.07 percent to close at 116,852.68 points on Monday, with a total trading volume of 6.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.62 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 1,266.72 points, while the banking and holding sectors indices decreased 1.53 percent and 1.09 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the transportation sector index was the top performer for a second day in a row -- up 3.32 percent. The basic metal sector suffered the most, down by 2.44 percent.

The shares of Tesco Kipa (KIPA) were the top gainers of the day, up 8.95 percent, while the stocks of Is Bankasi (ISCTR), one of Turkey's largest and oldest private lenders, suffered the biggest drop, falling 4.83 percent.

The top five most-traded stocks were the national flag-carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, iron and steel producer Kardemir, and private lenders Isbank and Akbank.

On Friday, the BIST 100 dropped 0.78 percent or 924.98 points to close at 118,119.40 points. The trade volume was 5.3 billion Turkish liras ($1.4 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange dropped to 3.7600 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Monday, compared to Friday's close at 3.7650.

The euro/lira exchange rate also slightly rose to 4.6710 on Monday, from 4.6840 at last week's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index dropped 0.80 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram declined to 161,600 Turkish liras (around $42,927) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), versus 162,100 Turkish liras ($43,089) on Friday.

As of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) Monday, the price of Brent oil slipped to $67.88 per barrel, compared with the previous close of $68.58.

Meanwhile, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) Monday, consumer prices in Turkey rose 10.35 percent in January, year-on-year, marking a 1.57 percentage point decrease compared with the figure in the previous month.