Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down over 3 pct at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Monday down 3.10 percent at 104,282.78 points with a trading volume of around 6.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.51 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 3,331.49-point drop from Friday's close of 107,614.27 points, while it opened the day at 107,940.24 points, up 0.30 percent.

The USD/TRY exchange stood at 4.0440 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Monday, compared with 4.0480 at Friday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also stood at 4.8870 by market close, versus 4.8890 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate fell slightly to 5.6000 Turkish liras, compared with 5.6300 at last week's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index fell 0.98 percent at close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,310.00 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Monday, compared with $1,323.00 at Friday's close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $74.29 per barrel on the first transaction day's closing, compared with $74.80 at the end of the Friday.

The market will be closed on Tuesday for May 1 International Labor Day, which is a bank holiday in Turkey.