Turkey's BIST 100 down at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index decreased by 0.16 percent to close at 116,420.34 points on Monday, with a total trading volume of 7.96 billion Turkish liras (nearly $2 billion).

On the first transaction day of the week Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index lost 182.48 points, while the banking and holding sector indices decreased 0.85 percent and 0.34 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the textile leather sector index was the best performer, rising 2.58 percent, while the investment trusts sector index performed the worst, down by 8.56 percent.

Stocks of the conglomerate Dogan Holding were the top gainers of the day, up 12.90 percent, while stocks of Hurriyet Gazetecilik, one of Turkey's bestselling daily newspapers, suffered the most, falling 9.41 percent.

Dogan Holding's affiliate company Dogan Media Company, consisting of Turkey's several leading TV channels, newspapers and magazines, was sold to another Turkish conglomerate Demiroren Holding last week.

The day's most traded stocks belonged to national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, conglomerate Dogan Holding, automotive manufacturer Karsan Otomotiv, private lender Garanti and gold miner Koza Altin.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange climbed to 3.9740 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Monday, compared with last week's close at 3.9580.

The euro/lira exchange rate also rose to 4.9440 on Monday, from the previous close of 4.8890.

The BIST Gold Exchange index gained 0.12 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram reached 172,800 Turkish liras (around $43,364) as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT), up from 171,050 liras ($42,924) at Friday's close.

As of 6.45 p.m. local time (1545GMT) Monday, the price of Brent oil dropped slightly to $69.62 per barrel, versus $70.19 at the previous close.