Türkiye's Borsa Istanbul down at weekly open

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye's benchmark stock index opened at 2,489.74 points on Monday, decreasing 2.52%, or 64.34 points, from the previous close.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 0.43% to close at 2,554.08 points on Friday, with a daily trade volume of 34.99 billion Turkish liras ($2 billion).

After the Turkish banking watchdog's decision on late Friday, which limits commercial loans for companies with a certain amount of foreign currency, Turkish lira gained strength against foreign currencies.

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate dropped to 16.5870 as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT), from 17.3700 at the previous close.

The euro/lira exchange rate decreased to 17.5095 from 18.3120, while a British pound traded for 20.3650 Turkish liras, down from 21.3980 at the last week's close.

Brent crude oil was sold for around $108.98 per barrel, while the price of an ounce of gold was $1,838.75.