UPDATE - Turkey's Borsa Istanbul hits 20-month high at close

BIST 100 index surges 1.39% to close Monday at 106,846.18 points

UPDATE WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the day up 1.39% to hit 20-month high at 106,846.18 points on Monday.

Starting the week at 105,902.43 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index increased 1,466.47 points from 105,379.71 points at Friday's close.

During Monday's trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 105,902.43 points and 107,222.38 points -- 82 stocks on the index rose, 14 fell, and four were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of 726.1 billion Turkish liras ($126.3 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 10 billion Turkish liras ($1.75 billion).

Shares of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti BBVA, and petrochemical company Petkim saw the highest trading volumes on Monday.

Shares of Cement producer Konya Cimento was the best performer on Monday, rising 9.94%, while stocks of conglomerate Metro Holding did the worst, losing 17.30%.

An ounce of gold sold for $1,458.00 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,465.65 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil was $62.66 per barrel as of 6.00 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Monday -- with a day range of $62.53 to $63.54.