Turkish stocks down slightly at Monday close

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index on Monday dropped 0.15% to close at 1,540.21 points.

After starting the week at 1,556.57 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index lost 2.24 points from 1,542.45 points at the previous close.

During the day, the index hovered between 1,536.97 and 1,560.13 points – 52 stocks on the index rose, 46 fell, and two were flat compared to Friday's close.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 1.16 trillion Turkish liras ($156.4 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 32.4 billion Turkish liras (nearly $4.4 billion).

The highest trading volumes were posted by gold miner Koza Altin, energy company Odas Elektrik, and iron/steel producer Kardemir.

Fertilizer producer Bagfas was the best performer, with its shares up 9.98%, while stocks of Halk GMYO, a real estate investment trust operating under state lender Halkbank, dropped the most, 6.37%.

One ounce of gold sold for $1,863.15 by market close on Monday, up from $1,843.20 at Friday's close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $55.30 per barrel as of 6.00 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Monday.