Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at open

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index fell by 3.21%, or 2,751.79 points on Monday to start the week at 83,044 points.

At Friday's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was up 0.70% at 85,795.79 points, with a daily trading volume of 7.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.1 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 6.5730 as of 09.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Monday, versus 6.5500 at the previous close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also increased to 7.0710, compared to 7.0210, and one British pound traded for 7.7130 Turkish liras. It was 7.7420 at the last week's close.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $26.25 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) on Monday.