Turkey's Borsa Istanbul Starts Week With Gains

By Jeyhun AliyevANKARA (AA) - Turkey's stock exchange started the week up 0.30 percent, or 296.03 points, to open at 98,284.19 points.The banking sector index rose 0.37 percent, while the holding sector rose 0.54 percent on Monday.Among all sector indices, the leasing factoring sector index posted the best performance, up 0.82 percent, while the tourism sector index performed the worst, losing 0.25 percent.Last week, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 closed Friday at 97,988.16, up 1.94 percent, or 1,867.06 points, with a trading volume of 7.6 billion Turkish liras ($1.21 billion).The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 6.3280 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Monday, versus 6.2920 at Friday's close.The euro/lira exchange rate also climbed to 7.4240 by market open -- from 7.3930 at the previous close -- and one British pound traded for 8.2890 Turkish liras versus 8.2270 at the previous close.The price of Brent oil stood at $79.78 per barrel as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Monday, compared to $79.28 on Friday. -