Borsa Istanbul looking down at weekly open

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index opened the week at 1,343.58 points on Monday, down 0.12% or 1.57 points from the previous close.

At Thursday's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was up 1.10% at 1,345.15 points, with a daily trading volume of 14.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.7 billion).

The market was closed on Friday due to a public holiday in Turkey to mark the April 23 National Sovereignty and Children’s Day.

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 8.4600 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Monday, up from 8.3120 at the previous close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 10.2500 versus 9.9780, while one British pound traded for 11.7600 Turkish liras, up from 11.5300 at the last week's close.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $64.67 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT).