Turkey's Borsa Istanbul flat at open

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's stock exchange decreased 0.05 percent, or 48.30 points, to open at 93,568.15 points Monday.

The BIST banking index fell 0.10 percent while holding sector index rose 0.10 percent.

Among all sector indices, the tourism sector index was the best, up 0.92 percent, while the wholesale and retail trade sector index was the worst, down 0.68 percent.

On Friday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 closed at 93,616.45, up 0.34 percent, or 319.61 points, with a trading volume of 5.4 billion Turkish liras (around $1 billion).

The USD/TRY exchange rate rose to 5.3640 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Monday. It was 5.3410 at the last week's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate increased to 6.1170. by market open -- from 6.0930 at the previous close -- and one British pound traded for 6.8990 Turkish liras over 6.8840 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil rose to $67.22 per barrel as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Monday, compared to $66.76 on Friday.