Turkish shares down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 1,031.65-point drop to stand at 87,357,86 on Monday.

The BIST 100 index decreased by 1.17 percent with a total trading volume of 5.6 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.52 billion).

The Turkish lira continued to gain ground against the dollar as the exchange rate fell below 3.69.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to stand at 3.6880 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Monday.

On the first trading day of the week, the banking and holding sector indexes decreased by 2.03 and 1.08 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the technology one was the best performer -- a 1.66 percent rise -- while the construction index declined the most, falling by 2.18 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were private lender Garanti, the country's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, followed by other lenders Akbank, Halkbank, and Yapi Kredi.

On Sunday, the Prime Ministry said treasury shares in a number of state institutions would be shifted to the sovereign wealth fund. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus described the fund as a guarantee protecting the Turkish economy against external interventions.

The Turkish Privatization Authority said early Monday, "The Treasury's 49.12 percent stake in the national flag carrier Turkish Airlines and 51.11 percent shares in the state-lender Halkbank have been transferred to Turkey’s newly-formed sovereign wealth fund."

Shares of Net Turizm, which operates in the tourism sector, were the top performer with a 5.22 percent rise Monday. Conglomerate GSD Holding suffered biggest drop of the day, its shares decreasing by 4.69 percent.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index increased by 1.32 percent while the price of gold was constant to trade at 143,000 Turkish liras (around $38,784) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).