Turkish stocks flat at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day with a 19.35-point decrease to stand at 83,047.80 points on Monday.

The BIST 100 index was flat with just a 0.02 percent decline while the total trading volume was 3.7 billion Turkish liras (approximately $979 million).

On the first trading day of the week, the banking sector index fell by 0.94 percent while the holding sector index rose by 0.70 percent. Among all sector indexes, the communication one increased the most with a 1.28 percent hike while the mining sector was the worst performer for the second trading day in a row, with a 1.54 percent decline.

The most heavily traded stocks were lenders Garanti Bank, Halkbank, Akbank plus airline companies Turkish Airlines and Pegasus.

Ege Endustri, which manufactures components for the automotive industry, enjoyed a 3.94 percent rise, the highest of the day. Vestel, one of Turkey's leading electronics and domestic appliances manufacturer, suffered a drop of 6.49 percent -- the largest decline of the day -- following a top performance Friday of a 9.41 percent increase.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index rose by 1.02 percent while gold was trading at 147,300 Turkish liras (around $38,979) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

The lira gained ground against dollar and the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to stand at 3.7740 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Monday, compared with 3.8200 on Friday's closing session.

The Central Bank refrained from holding its one-week repo auction for the eighth time in a row during the first day of trading on Monday.

The bank skipped the auction -- in which local banks borrow Turkish liras from the Central Bank -- as the bank acted to stem the sharp decline in the value of the local currency against others.

The Central Bank’s monetary policy committee decision about raising, holding or lowering interest rates is due on Tuesday, while Fitch’s rating review is expected on Friday, Jan. 27.