Turkish stocks down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 384.19-point fall to stand at 77,754.46 points on Monday.

The BIST 100 index dropped 0.49 percent, and the total trading volume of the benchmark index was around 1.8 billion Turkish liras (approximately $480 million).

On the first trading day of the year, the banking and holding sector indices decreased by 0.44 and 0.75 percent, respectively. Among all sector indices, the investment trusts index rose the most – 1.91 percent – while the information technologies sector declined the most, 1.42 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were private lender Garanti Bank, cement producer Afyon Cimento, airline companies Turkish Airlines and Pegasus, and state lender Halkbank.

Karsan, operating in the automotive industry, enjoyed a 6.48 percent rise in its shares – the highest of the day – while shares of Logo, a major software producer, suffered the largest decline with a 4.42 percent drop.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index fell 0.30 percent in value, with gold trading at 131,375 Turkish liras (some $37,107) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to stand at 3.5400 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Monday, compared to 3.5230 in Friday's closing session.

Turkey’s year-on-year trade deficit fell by 11.1 percent in December 2016 to $5.56 billion, according to preliminary data released by the Customs and Trade Ministry on Monday.

The ministry also said that exports for the month rose to $12.82 billion, a 9.31 percent rise from 2015, and imports rose 2.2 percent to $18.38 billion.

Analysts said investors would follow the inflation figures for December 2016 set to be released by the Turkish Statistical Institute Tuesday.