Turkish stocks start week down 0.34%

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index started the week down 0.34% or 311.49 points to open at 90,475.52 points on Monday.

On Friday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose by 0.32% to close the week at 90,787.01 points with a daily trading volume of 5.2 billion Turkish liras ($882 million).

Last week, the benchmark index posted a 3.22% decline. At the beginning of this year, the BIST 100 hovered around 89,000 points.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.9150 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Monday, up from 5.8770 at Friday's close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 6,6350, versus 6.6190, and one British pound traded for 7.4600 Turkish liras, compared to 7.4170.

One barrel of Brent oil was sold for $61.77 as of 10.15 a.m. local time (0715GMT) on Monday.