UPDATE - Turkish stocks up 1.68% at close

UPDATE WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Monday at 98,342.9 points with an increase of 1.68%.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 96,737.68 points.The index gained 1,624.42 points from the last week's close of 96,714.48 points.

The benchmark index hovered between 96,737.68 and 98,630.83 points during Monday's trading.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 655 billion Turkish liras ($112.7 billion) by market close, and the daily trading volume was 6 billion Turkish liras ($1 billion).

On the first transaction day of the week, 87 stocks on the index rose, 12 were down, and one was flat compared to the previous close.

The highest trading volumes were posted by national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti BBVA and defense company Aselsan.

The day's best performer was casting manufacturer Cemas Dokum, with its shares up 19.72%, while stocks of brewer and soft drinks manufacturer Anadolu Efes dropped the most, down 4.22%.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $58.70 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) on Monday.