Turkey's Borsa Istanbul flat at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark stock index, BIST 100, closed at 116,946.22 points, up 87.03 points or 0.07 percent, on Monday.

Trade volume amounted to 4.49 billion Turkish liras ($1.17 billion). The banking sector index decreased 0.32 percent while the holding sector index increased by 0.11 percent.

Among all sector indices, the textile leather sector index was the best performer with 4.44 percent while the telecommunications sector index fell the most -- 0.92 percent.

Stocks of the bedding and furniture company Yatas were the top gainers of the day -- with a 8.50 percent rise -- while stocks of Turkey's prominent sports club Fenerbahce fell 4.02 percent -- the biggest drop of the day.

The day's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, petrochemicals producer Petkim, gold miner Koza Altin and iron/steel producer Kardemir.

At last week's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 closed at 116,859.19, up 0.66 percent, or 772.88 points, with a 5.63-billion-Turkish lira ($1.48 billion) trade volume.

The US dollar/Turkish lira rate stood at 3.8210 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Monday, compared to 3.8220 at Friday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also stood at 4.7030, compared with Friday's close of 4.7040.

The BIST Gold Exchange index gained 0.15 percent in value. A kilogram of gold traded at 162,500 Turkish liras ($42,540) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Monday. A kilogram of gold traded at a closing price of 162,250 Turkish liras ($42,475) on Friday.

By 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) Monday, the price of Brent oil had risen by 2.14 percent to reach $64.80 per barrel, versus $63.44 at the previous close.

Turkey's annual inflation stood at 10.26 percent in February, down from 10.35 percent the previous month, the Turkish Statistical Institute announced on Monday.