Turkey's Borsa Istanbul goes down in opening session

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – The BIST 100 index lost 380.15 points to open at 75,347.13 on Monday during its first transactions.

The benchmark index decreased by 0.5 percent while the banking and holding sector indices declined by 0.42 and 0.68 percent, respectively.

On the first trading day of the week, among all sector indices the leasing and factoring sector index increased the most, by 0.7 percent, while the transportation index started the week with the biggest drop -- a 0.90 percent fall.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was flat at 3.4960 at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) Monday, compared with 3.4750 at Friday's close.

Meanwhile, Turkey's Gross Domestic Product went down by 1.8 percent in the third quarter of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015, the Turkish Statistical Institute reported on Monday.

Turkey’s current account deficit has widened, standing at $1.68 billion in October, up almost by $1.33 billion year-on-year, due to a decline in income from tourism and foreign trade, the Central Bank said in a report Monday.