Borsa Istanbul hits all-time high at close

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 1,378.88-point hike to reach 93,802.81 points on Monday, outdoing its previous record of 93,178.87 points on May 22, 2013.

BIST 100 index was up 1.49 percent with a total trading volume of 4.9 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.36 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 3.5920 liras as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) on Monday, compared with 3.6440 liras at Friday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell by 0.81 percent while the price of gold per kilogram was 146,700 Turkish liras (some $40,830) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), down from 150,300 Turkish liras (around $41,225) at Friday's close.

On the first trading day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices advanced by 1.77 percent and 1.48 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the transportation sector index was the best performer with an increase of 3.76 percent. There was no decline in sector indices on Monday.

Shares of Koza Gold Corporation (KOZAA), operating in the gold mining sector, advanced the most on Monday -- up 6.48 percent -- while stocks of Turkish conglomerate Ihlas Holding (IHLAS) saw the largest decline, falling 2.27 percent.

The top traded stocks were national flag-carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, iron and steel producer Eregli, another private lender Akbank and state lender Halkbank.