Turkey's benchmark stock index posts highest close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Monday at 110,339,99 points, marking its highest close of all time.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was up 584.84 points from Friday's close of 109,755.14 points with a total trading volume of 3.5 billion Turkish liras (nearly $1.02 billion).

On the first trading day of the week, the index advanced by 0.53 percent, and climbed to its highest peak, hitting 110,530.75 points.

The BIST 100's rise from the beginning of this year reached to nearly 42 percent with this new closing record, compared to a close of 77,754.46 points on Jan. 2.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 3.4490 by 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Monday, down from 3.4590 at Friday's close.

The exchange rate fell around 1.4 percent on a weekly basis while it saw an historic high in mid-January this year, climbing to around 3.94.

The banking and holding sector indices advanced 0.37 and 0.83 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the textile leather sector performed best -- up 2.17 percent -- while the BIST sports index fell 0.90 percent, the biggest decline on Monday.

Shares of oil and energy company Turcas Petrol (TRCAS) were the top gainer of the day with a 19.70 percent hike while poultry and feed producer Banvit (BANVT) was the worst performer; the value of its stocks fell by 6.43 percent.

The BIST 100's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), private lender Yapi Kredi (YKBNK), mining company Koza Madencilik (KOZAA), iron/steel producer Kardemir Karabuk (KRDMD) plus another private lender Garanti (GARAN).

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index went up by 0.85 percent while the price of gold per kilogram did not change compared to Friday's close and stood at 144,000 Turkish liras ($41,776) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Monday.