UPDATE - Borsa Istanbul up at close

UPDATE WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index rose by 0.60 percent to 96,157.74 points with a trading volume of around 7.4 billion Turkish liras (nearly $1.51 billion) in the closing session on Monday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 572.90-point increase from Friday's close of 95,584.84 points, while it opened the day at 95,340.39 points, down 0.26 percent.

The benchmark index hovered between 94,921.11 points and 96,269.35 points, with 59 stocks on the rise, 27 on the decline, and 14 flat compared to the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 635 billion liras ($130.75 billion) at close, while the banking and holding sector indices gained 0.70 percent and 0.36 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the tourism sector index saw the biggest boost, up 2.91 percent, while the insurance sector index did the worst, losing 1.63 percent.

Stocks of leading electronic appliances manufacturer Vestel climbed the most, up 6.25 percent, while shares of polyester producer Sasa did the worst, falling 16.89 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, defense company Aselsan, polyester producer Sas, private lender Garanti, and iron/steel producer Kardemir.

The USD/TRY exchange rate rose to 4.8850 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Monday, compared with 4.8590 at Friday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also increased to 5.7200 by market close, versus 5.6650 at the previous close, and one British pound traded for 6.4290 Turkish liras, compared with 6.3890 at the last week's close.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,224.20 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Monday, compared with $1,221.50 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil rose to $75.57 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) Monday, from $74.53 on Friday's close.

Bankacılık endeksi yüzde 0,70, holding endeksi de yüzde 0,36 değer kazandı. Sektör endeksleri arasında en fazla kazandıran yüzde 2,91 ile turizm, en çok kaybettiren ise yüzde 1,63 ile sigorta oldu.

The total net profit of the Turkish banking sector rose 13.8 percent year-on-year to 28.9 billion Turkish liras ($6.34 billion) in the first half of 2018, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) said on Monday.

Economic confidence in Turkey improved in July, up 2 percent to 92.2 from 90.4 in June, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reported on Monday.

TurkStat on Tuesday is set to release the country's foreign trade and tourism statistics for June.

Also on Tuesday Turkey's Central Bank will release its inflation report -- developments and projections.