Turkish shares, lira close higher

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish shares closed higher on Monday, with gain in the banking and holding sectors driving shares up.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST-100, the country’s benchmark index, closed up at 2.17 percent (1650.46 points) higher at 77,670.75.

On the first trading day of the week after the nine-day Eid al-Adha holiday, the mining sector was up by 12.43 percent, the banking sector index rose about 2.53 percent and the holding sector index was also up 2.75 percent.

But the insurance sector ended 0.46 percent lower for the day with a total trading volume of around 3 billion Turkish liras (just over $1 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's most actively traded stocks were Garanti Bank, Turkish Airlines, state lender Halkbank, private lender Akbank and Koza Gold.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index was up in value Monday compared to Friday's closing, with gold trading at 126,075 Turkish liras per kilogram.

The Turkish lira rose against the U.S. dollar by 0.16 percent at 2.97 compared to Friday's close over 2.98.