Turkish shares rise nearly 1 pct at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index increased 0.93 percent to close at 109,458.01 points on Monday with a 5.4 billion Turkish lira ($1.58 billion) trade volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 1,006.31 points, from 108,451.70 points at closing on Friday, while the banking and holding sector indexes went up 1.05 and 0.95 percent, respectively.

On the first trading day of the week, the BIST transportations index increased the most with a 3.61 percent hike and the BIST tourism index performed the worst, going down 0.56 percent.

Shares of Yatas Bedding (YATAS) enjoyed the biggest rise on Monday -- up 6.47 percent -- while stocks of automotive manufacturer Ford Otosan (FROTO) saw the largest decline of the day, falling 2.53 percent.

The BIST 100's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), lenders Garanti (GARAN) and Halkbank (HALKB), followed by energy company Zorlu Enerji (ZOREN) plus media giant and oil distributer Dogan Holding (DOHOL).

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell 1.43 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram decreased to 146,100 Turkish liras (some $42,870) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) on Monday, down from 148,300 Turkish liras (around $43,405) at Friday's close.

The dollar/lira exchange rate tested below 3.40 level for the first time in 2017. The USD/TRY rate dropped to 3.3986 by around 11 a.m. local time (0800GMT) Monday.

The exchange rate stood at 3.4010 by 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Monday, compared with 3.4080 at Friday's close.

One dollar was exchanged for 3.51 on average last month, while the first eight months' average USD/TRY rate was 3.61.

The USD/TRY rate saw sharp fluctuations after last year's defeated July 15 coup and climbed to its historic hike -- around 3.94 liras -- in mid-January this year.

According to Turkish Central Bank data, the dollar/lira rate was 3.02 on average last year and 2.71 on average in 2015.