Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down 2.4 pct at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Monday down 2.38 percent at 92,684.55 points with a trading volume of around 15.5 billion Turkish liras ($2.26 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 2,255.08-point drop from Friday's close of 94,939.63 points, while it opened the day at 93,869.51 points, down 1.13 percent.

The benchmark index hovered between 88,432.64 points and 93,869.51 points, while 26 stocks were on the rise, 73 on the decline, and one flat compared to the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 608.8 billion liras ($102.5 billion) at close, while the banking sector index lost 9.78 percent and holding sector index rose 0.23 percent.

Among all sectors, the chemical petrol plastic sector index was the best, up 7.69 percent, and the banking sector index saw the biggest drop.

Stocks of event organizer Flap climbed the most, up 12.63 percent, while shares of grocery store chain Migros suffered the worst, falling 15.61 percent.

The BIST 100's most traded listed companies were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, petrochemical company Petkim, defense company Aselsan and another private lender Isbank.

The USD/TRY exchange rate rose to 6.8710 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Monday, compared with 6.5190 at Friday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also climbed to 7.8560 by market close, versus 7.4530 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate reached 8.5540 Turkish liras, compared with 8.3280 at last week's close.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,198.50 as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) Monday, compared with $1,210.00 at previous close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $72.69 per barrel on the first transaction day's closing, compared with $72.84 at the end of Friday.