Turkish stocks 0.27% down before holiday break

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Monday down 0.27% to close at 90,345.63 points, before going into a three-and-a-half-day break for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

After starting the week at 90,335.58 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 244.09 points from 90,589.73 points at Friday's close.

During Monday's half-day trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 89,819.98 points and 90,867.08 points, posting a trading volume of around 1.8 billion Turkish liras ($307 million).

Last week, the benchmark index posted a 5.24% hike, climbing 1.94% from 88,865.01 points at the close on the first business day of 2019.

The price of Brent oil was $62.24 per barrel as of 13.15 p.m. local time (1015GMT) on Monday -- with a day range of $60.55 to $62.46.

At the beginning of 2019, a barrel of Brent oil was sold for around $53.