Turkish stocks down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 493.03-point drop to 87,765.41 points on Monday.

The BIST 100 index fell by 0.56 percent with a relatively low total trading volume of 2.7 billion Turkish liras (approximately $751 million).

On the first trading day of the week, the banking and holding indexes were down by 0.49 and 0.71 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors indexes, the investment trusts index was the top gainer -- a 0.78 percent rise -- while the mining sector was the worst, declining 2.50 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were private lender Garanti, the country's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, state lender Halkbank plus other private lenders Is Bankasi and Akbank.

Shares of Yazicilar Holding (YAZIC), which operates mainly in beverages, retail trade, and automotive sectors, were the best performer of the day, rising 9.46 percent.

Stocks of Tumosan Motor (TMSN), a major diesel engine and tractor manufacturer, saw the largest decline of the day, falling 8.66 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate hovered below 3.60. One dollar was worth 3.5950 liras as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Monday, compared to 3.5880 at Friday's closing, after seeing a historic hike -- over 3.90 liras -- in mid-January.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index was flat with only a 0.02 percent gain while the price of gold per kilogram slightly decreased to 144,650 Turkish liras (around $40,234) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), compared with 144,750 Turkish liras (around $40,347) at Friday's closing.

On Monday, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said confidence in Turkey’s economy rebounded in February after a two-month dip.

The Economic Confidence Index surged 6.8 percent to 91.5 in February compared to last month, TurkStat said in a statement.

"This increase in the economic confidence index stemmed from the increases in services, the real sector, construction, and retail trade confidence indexes," the statement said.