UPDATE - Turkish stocks post strong gains at Monday's close

UPDATE WITH MORE DAILY FIGURE

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index Borsa Istanbul on Monday surged 2.33% to hit an all-time high of 2,449.11 points at close.

After starting the day at 2,403.52 points, the BIST 100 index jumped 55.72 points from Friday's close of 2,393.39 points.

During Monday's trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 2,400.92 and 2,450.16 points – 79 stocks on the index rose, 19 fell, and two were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of around 2 trillion Turkish liras ($136 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 63.6 billion Turkish liras ($4.3 billion).

Shares of private lender Garanti BBVA, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, and iron/steel producer Kardemir posted the highest trading volumes on Monday.

Shares of leasing company Is Finansal Kiralama (ISFIN) enjoyed the highest gain, rising 10%, while stocks of pharmaceutical company Genil fell the most, 2.81%.

One ounce of gold traded for $1,965.00 by market close, up from $1,936.00 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil fell to $99.71 per barrel as of 6.03 p.m. local time (1503GMT) on Monday, down 2.99% from the previous close.