Turkish stocks up nearly 1 pct at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Monday up 0.99 percent at 103,930.67 points with a trade volume of 4 billion Turkish liras (around $1.12 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index climbed 1,022.94 points, up from Friday's close of 102,907.73 points, while the banking and holding sector indices were up 0.99 and 0.94 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the BIST mining index rose the most -- up 4.57 percent -- while the BIST transportation index was the worst for a second consecutive trading day, losing 1.57 percent.

Shares of lender ICBC Turkey Bank (ICBCT) were the top gainer of the day with a 20.0 percent hike, while telecommunication giant Turk Telekom (TTKOM) witnessed the biggest drop, its shares falling 1.91 percent.

The top five traded stocks of the BIST 100 were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), private lender Garanti (GARAN), energy and mining company Ipek Dogal Enerji (IPEKE), mining firm Koza Mandencilik (KOZAA), and private lender Akbank (AKBNK).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate climbed to 3.5760 by 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Monday, up from 3.5590 at Friday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index was down 1.20 percent, and the price of gold per kilogram stood at 146,700 Turkish liras ($41,114) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Monday.