By Gokhan Ergocun
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index dropped by 1.51 percent to close at 115,450.26 points on Monday, with a total trading volume of 4.86 billion Turkish liras ($1.23 billion).
Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index lost 1,766.02 points, while the banking and holding sector indices decreased 2.67 percent and 1.32 percent, respectively.
Among all sectors, the construction sector index was the best performer, rising 0.95 percent, while the sports sector index performed the worst, down by 2.73 percent.
Stocks of the prominent polyester producer Sasa Polyester were the top gainers of the day, up 5.66 percent, while stocks of Besiktas, one of the prominent Turkish sports club, suffered the most, falling 5.53 percent.
The day's most-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, iron and steel producer Kardemir, polyester producer Sasa Polyester and real estate investment trust Emlak Gayrimenkul.
On the last week's close, the BIST 100 stood at 117,216.28 points with an increase of 0.01 percent or 14.74 points. The trade volume was 5.58 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.43 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange climbed to 3.9450 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Monday, compared with last week's close at 3.9110.
The euro/lira exchange rate also rose by over 1 percent to 4.8610 on Monday, from the previous close of 4.8060.
The BIST Gold Exchange index lost 0.68 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram reached 166,200 Turkish liras (around $42,116) as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT), up from 165,500 liras ($41,939) at Friday's close.
As of 6.00 p.m. local time (1500GMT) Monday, the price of Brent oil dropped slightly to $65.55 per barrel, versus $65.94 at the previous close.