Turkish stocks up over 1.2 pct

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 1,104.98-point hike to stand over 88,500 level Monday.

The BIST 100 index advanced by 1.53 percent to reach 88,578.31 while the total trading volume was 3.7 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to stand at 3.6790 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Monday, compared with 3.6960 at Friday's closing session.

On the first day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices rose by 2.34 and 1.24 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the basic metal industry was the best performer --2.59 percent rise-- while the communication sector declined the most, falling by 1.21 percent.

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

Early Monday, Turkish Airlines announced that direct flights from Turkey's holiday resort of Antalya to Algeria would begin July 8 and last until Sept. 23.

"Now it is much easier to reach country’s tourism center, Antalya from Algeria with these direct flights," said the airline which flies to nearly 300 destinations in 120 countries, more than any other airline.

Shares of Otokar, one of Turkey's major defense industry companies operating under conglomerate Koc Holding, were the top gainer of the day, rising 3.69 percent.

Ihlas Holding, a conglomerate that has businesses in several sectors, was the worst performer. Its shares dropped 4.88 percent.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index increased by 0.29 percent while gold was trading at 145,850 Turkish liras (around $39,640) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

The European Commission on Monday forecast Turkey’s economy to grow 2.8 percent in 2017, marking a 0.2-point decrease from its previous estimate of 3 percent.

The commission also said it expected Turkey to expand at a pace of 3.2 percent next year, which is also 0.1 point lower than a previous estimate published in its Autumn 2016 forecast.

Monday's report sees Turkey’s inflation at 8 percent in 2017 and 7.6 percent in 2018. The unemployment rate expectation of the commission was 11.2 percent for this year and 11.5 next year.

However, the commission forecast Turkey’s economy to be back on track once “political and policy uncertainty reduce in the second half of 2017… after the referendum on the presidential system, private domestic demand will return to growth at a moderate pace”.