Turkish stocks end Monday with gains

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Monday up 0.31% to close at 94,103.07 points.

After starting the first business day of the week at 93,761.52 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index surged 293.98 points from 93,809.09 points at Friday's close.

Last week, the benchmark index posted a 3.55% hike, while it was open only for a day-and-a-half due to the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

During Monday's trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 93,013.89 points and 94,448.16 points -- 73 stocks on the index rose, 21 fell, and six were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of nearly 623 billion Turkish liras ($107 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 6.84 billion Turkish liras ($1.17 billion).

By market capitalization, top companies on the index were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($7.21 billion) and private lenders Garanti BBVA ($6.04 billion) and Akbank ($5.77 billion).

Shares of Garanti BBVA, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, and leading petrochemicals producer Petkim posted the highest trading volumes on Monday -- accounting for around 35% of the benchmark index's total trade volume.

Stocks of polyester manufacturer Sasa Polyester (SASA) were the top gainers -- up 8.51% -- as shares of leasing company Is Finansal Kiralama (ISFIN) did the worst, with a 3.41% drop.

One ounce of gold sold for $1,328.20 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,335.10 at last week's close.

The price of Brent oil was $63.24 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Monday -- with a day range of $62.76 to $64.09.

At the beginning of 2019, a barrel of Brent oil sold for around $53.