Turkey's Borsa Istanbul flat at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 56.32-point increase to stand at 77,028.47 points on Monday.

The BIST 100 index advanced by 0.07 percent, and the total trading volume of the benchmark index hovered around 775.5 million Turkish liras (approx. $221 million), a very low volume due to the holiday inaction in the international markets.

On the first day of the week, the banking sector index was flat with a 0.07 percent rise, and the holding sector index decreased by 0.41 percent. Among all sector indexes, the mining sector rose the most -- 2.13 percent -- while the information technologies index fell the most, by 0.95 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were private lender Garanti Bank, defense industry company Otokar, cement producer Afyon Cimento, major sports club Galatasaray and the national flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

Alarko Gayrimenkul, a real estate investment trust, enjoyed with a 3.92 percent rise of its shares -- the highest of the day. Beverages producer and retail trade company Yazicilar Holding's shares saw the biggest drop with a 3.77 percent fall.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index rose by 0.71 percent in value, with gold trading at 128,600 Turkish liras ($36,636) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate slightly decreased to stand at 3.5080 as of 5.00 p.m. (1400GMT) on Monday, compared to 3.5130 in Friday's closing session.

The interest rate paid on dollar-denominated reserves that lenders hold with Turkey's Central Bank rose by 26 basis points, the bank announced Monday.