Turkish shares go up at close, lira gains ground

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Monday up 0.21 percent at 104,759.74 points with a 5.4 billion Turkish lira ($1.38 billion) trade volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 220.33 points, up from Friday's close at 104,539.41 points, while the banking and holding sector indices advanced by 0.57 and 0.06 percent, respectively.

On the first day of the week, the BIST transportation index was the best performer with a 3.64 percent hike and the basic metal sector was the worst performer among all sector indices, as its index went down by 2.05 percent.

Last week, the BIST 100 fell by 1.6 percent on a weekly basis, while the benchmark index has risen almost by 35 percent since the beginning of 2017.

Automotive manufacturer Karsan Otomotiv (KARSN) enjoyed the best performance on Monday as its shares went up 8.70 percent while stocks of a real estate investment trust company Kiler GMYO (KLGYO) saw the largest decline -- falling by 8.87 percent.

Monday's top shares with highest trade volume were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), private lender Garanti (GARAN), automotive manufacturer Karsan Otomotiv (KARSN), followed by another private lender Akbank (AKBNK) and state lender Halkbank (HALKB).

One U.S. dollar traded for 3.8950 Turkish liras as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Monday, down from 3.9390 at Friday's close. Last week, the USD/TRY rate hit its all-time peak at around 3.97.

By market close, the euro/lira exchange rate also decreased to 4.6570, compared with Friday's close at 4.6880.

The BIST Gold Exchange index advanced by 0.65 percent while a kilogram of gold traded at 163,100 Turkish liras ($41,869) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Monday.

The price of Brent oil was $63.17 per barrel as of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) Monday, compared with $63.43 at Friday's close.