Turkish stocks flat at close

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the day by going up 81.91 points on Monday to stand at 100,522.30 points.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 0.08 percent with a total trading volume of 3.8 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.07 billion).

The banking sector index climbed 0.45 percent, while the holding sector index was down 0.21 percent.

Among all indices, the mining sector index was the best performer, up 4.01 percent, while the information technology sector index was the worst, down 0.86 percent.

The stocks of a prominent sports club Galatasaray (GSRAY) enjoyed the biggest rise on Monday, up 7.67 percent, while the stocks of Kron Telekomunikasyon (KRONT), service providers, saw a 2.67 percent decrease, marking the biggest drop of the day.

The five most-traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, mining company Koza Madencilik, other lender Akbank and energy company Ipek Dogal Enerji.

The BIST 100 was up 250.08 points or 0.25 percent to close at 100,440.39 points on Friday, with a total trading volume of 4.1 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.16 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 3.5480 Turkish liras as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) on Monday, up from 3.5080 Turkish liras at Friday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index fell by 1.19 percent, while the price of gold per kilogram rose to 141,000 Turkish liras (around $39,7888) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).