Turkish shares up at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 287.87-point increase to stand at 77,394.44 points on Monday.

The BIST 100 index rose by 0.37 percent with a total trading volume of 2.8 billion Turkish liras (approximately $750 million).

On the first day of the week, the banking and holding indexes advanced by 0.56 and 0.13 percent, respectively. The leasing factoring index gained the most – 2.22 percent – while the investment trusts index declined the most, 1.27 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were lenders Garanti Bank, Akbank, Halkbank, Is Bankasi and the country's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

Turkey's major defense industry company, ASELSAN, enjoyed a 5.01 percent rise in its shares -- the highest of the day -- while shares of Net Turizm Holding, which operates international Merit Hotels, saw the biggest drop with a 2.31 percent decline.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index increased 0.17 percent in value, with gold trading at 140,750 Turkish liras (around $37,702) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange hit new records and increased steeply to stand at 3.7340 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Monday, compared to 3.6340 in Friday's closing session.

"Inflationary effects of the decline in the Turkish lira against the U.S. dollar will be kept to a minimum," the country's deputy prime minister Nurettin Canikli said on Monday.

Speaking to news channel A Haber, Canikli said that measures had already been put in place to cushion Turkey's real sector from damage due to currency volatility.

On Monday, the international credit rating agency Moody’s forecast that Turkish banking sector profits would be hit significantly in 2017 by rising non-performing loans.

"We expect asset quality trends to worsen this year, driven by the combination of high inflation, lira depreciation, and the general worsening of the investment climate because of security issues and geopolitical tensions," Moody’s said in a report.

As a response to the Moody's forecast, Mehmet Ali Akben, head of a Turkish banking watchdog, said, "The Turkish banking sector closed 2016 very well in terms of profitability. There is no significant deterioration in neither the banks' assets quality nor their non-performing loans".

"Turkey has a solid risk management framework in the banking sector. We cannot talk about a fall in the banks' capital adequacy ratio. In this sense, we see Moody's recent release as intentional," he added.

Turkish industrial output was flat in November from the previous month, as an advance in one sub-index was offset by declines in two others, according to official data released Monday.

A report from the Turkish Statistical Institute showed the mining and quarrying index slip 0.3 percent and the manufacturing index also saw a slight decline of 0.2 percent in November from the previous month based on seasonally and calendar-adjusted values.

According to the country's Eastern Black Sea Exporters Association data, Turkey earned $28.73 million in tea export in 2016, marking a 20.4 percent increase compared to the previous year.