Turkish stocks up 1.94 pct at close; lira gains ground

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index surged 1.94 percent to close at 95,947.73 points on Monday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index increased 1,824.71 points from last week's close of 94,123.02 points, while it started the day at 94,523.72 points.

Turkish lira gained value against the greenback after the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Turkey was among eight nations granted temporary waivers from sanctions the U.S. reimposed Monday on Iran's oil sector.

China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were also granted exemptions.

The USD/TRY exchange rate was around 5.50 levels before the announcement.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate dropped to 5.4050 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Monday, down from 5.4140 at the close on Friday.

One euro traded for 6.1590 Turkish liras at close, down from 6.1890 at Friday's close.

By market close, the GBP/TRY exchange rate was 7.0510, versus 7.0730 at the previous close.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,230.00, down from Thursday's close of $1,232.40.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil rose to $73.51 per barrel, compared with $72.83 at Friday's close.