By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 181.67-point decline to 89,429.73 points on Monday.
The BIST 100 index was down by 0.20 percent with a total trading volume of three billion Turkish liras (approximately $800 million).
On the first trading day of the week, the banking sector fell 0.13 percent while the holding index climbed 0.19 percent.
Among all sector indices, the leasing factoring index was the top performer -- increasing 6.39 percent -- for the second trading day in a row while the tourism sector was the worst performer with a 1.78 percent drop.
The top five heavily-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, lenders Garanti and Halkbank, major cement producer Afyon Cimento followed by prominent petrochemical producer company Petkim.
Shares of Gozde Girisim (GOZDE), a Turkish private equity firm controlled by food giant Ulker, were the best performer of the day, rising 5.07 percent. Turkish conglomerate Alarko Holding (ALARK) suffered the largest decline, with its shares going down 7.51 percent.
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate hovered below 3.75. One dollar was worth 3.7460 liras as of 5.00 p.m. (1400 GMT) Monday. The dollar traded for 3.7320 liras last Friday, March 10 after seeing a historic hike -- over 3.90 liras -- in mid-January.
The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index advanced 0.48 percent while the price of gold per kilogram went up to 145,400 Turkish liras (around $38,795) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), compared with 142,000 Turkish liras (around $38,010) at Friday's close.
On Monday, the Turkish Central Bank reported that Turkey’s current account deficit stood at $2.76 billion in January, up almost by $561 million year-on-year due to an increase in foreign trade deficit and a decrease in revenue from services.
Meanwhile, the 12-month rolling deficit rose to $33.16 billion, up from $32.6 billion in December 2016, according to the Bank.