Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down 1.5 pct at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Monday down 1.50 percent at 94,173.97 points with a trading volume of around 7 billion Turkish liras ($1.35 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 1,436.51-point drop from Friday's close of 95,610.48 points, while it opened the day at 95,290.46 points, down 0.33 percent.

The USD/TRY exchange rate rose to 5.1930 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Monday, compared with 5.0840 at Friday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also climbed to 5.9990 by market close, versus 5.8920 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate reached 6.7140 Turkish liras, compared with 6.6180 at last week's close.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,208.50 as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) Monday, compared with $1,214.00 at previous close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil rose to $74.28 per barrel on the first transaction day's closing, compared with $73.44 at the end of Friday.