Turkish stocks up 1.27 percent at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Monday up 1.27 percent to close at 96,087.27 points.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index surged 1,203.80 points, up from 94,883.47 points at Friday's close, while it started the first trading day at 94,132.17 points.

During Monday's trading the BIST 100's daily-peak was 96,231.73 points while the index fell to 93,816.94. Compared with the previous close, 62 stocks on the index rose, 31 fell, and seven were flat.

Among all sectors, the BIST banking index posted the highest increase -- up 5.84 percent --, while the BIST food beverage index did the worst, going down 1.78 percent.

Stocks of Turkish conglomerate Ittifak Holding (ITTFH), were the top gainers with a 19.90-percent hike, and shares of brewer and soft drinks manufacturer Anadolu Efes (AEFES) suffered the largest decline, falling 4.40 percent.

The total market value of the BIST 100's listed companies was around 630 billion liras ($102.4 billion) with a trading volume of 7.6 billion liras ($1.23 billion).

As of daily close, market value leaders on the BIST 100 were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($6.61 billion), iron and steel producer Eregli Demir Celik ($6.27 billion), and energy giant Tupras ($5.64 billion).

Monday's most traded shares were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, state-run lender Halkbank, defense company Aselsan and another private lender Akbank.

By market close, the USD/TRY exchange rate was stable at 6.1260, compared with last week's close of 6.1280.

The euro/lira rate was 7.0340, down from 7.0640 at the previous close, and one British pound traded for 8.0100 Turkish liras, while the GBP/TRY exchange rate was 8.0370 at close on Friday.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, the price of one ounce of gold was $1,193.70 at the daily close, while the price was $1,202.90 at close on Friday.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at around $83.44 per barrel, hovering between $82.67 and $83.97 during Monday's trading.

Since the beginning of this year, Brent oil price has risen from $66 a barrel.