Turkish stocks go up at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index went up by 591.40 points to close at 95,587.75 points on Monday.

The BIST 100 index of the largest listed companies in Istanbul increased by 0.62 percent.

On the first transaction day of the week, the banking and holding sector indexes increased by 0.79 percent and 0.13 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the transport index was the best performer with an increase of 2.24 percent while the factoring and leasing sector was the worst, falling by 0.68 percent.

Stocks of Galatasaray Sportif (GSRAY), a prominent Turkish sports club, performed the best on Monday -- up by 11.89 percent.

The five most traded stocks were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Turkish defense giant Aselsan, mobile operator Turkcell and Galatasaray.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate slipped to 3.5540 Turkish liras as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) on Monday, compared with 3.5720 Turkish liras at Friday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index increased by 0.63 percent while the price of gold per kilogram fell to 141,600 Turkish liras (around $39,880) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).