Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at closing session

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Monday at 94,681.70 points, down 1.84 percent.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 1,772.86 points from last week's close of 96,454.57 points, while it started the day at 97,215.75 points.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose slightly to 5.6790 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Monday, up from 5.6450 at the close on Friday.

One euro traded for 6.5210 Turkish liras at close, up from 6.4890 at Friday's close.

By market close, the GBP/TRY exchange rate was 7.3780, versus 7.3670 at the previous close.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,224.00, down from Thursday's close of $1,230.00.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil fell to $79.61 per barrel, compared with $80.42 at Friday's close.