Dollar to TL rate stands at 5.49 by noon on Nov 12 2018

ISTANBUL

The U.S. dollar/Turkish Lira stood at 5.49 as of noon on Nov. 12.

The USD/TL was 5.4800 at the last week's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate dropped to 6.2050 by market open -- from 6.2190 at the previous close -- and one British pound traded for 7.0850 Turkish liras over 7.1380 at the previous close.

Turkey's stock exchange rose 0.18 percent, or 166.58 points, to open at 93,005.79 points Nov. 9.

On the first transaction day of the week, both banking and holding sector indices dropped 0.01 percent.

Among all sector indices, the wholesale and retail trade sector index was the best, up 1.29 percent, while the tourism sector index was the worst, down 0.36 percent.

On Friday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 closed at 92,839.21, down 0.71 percent, or 667.01 points, with a trading volume of 6.5 billion liras ($1.18 billion).

The price of Brent oil rose to $71.47 per barrel as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Monday, compared to $69.78 on Friday.

Meanwhile Turkey's current account balance showed a surplus in September for the second consecutive month this year, the Turkish Central Bank (CBRT) announced on Nov. 12.

According to the CBRT's balance of payments report, the country's current account surplus totaled $1.83 billion in September, improving from last year's deficit of $4.4 billion.

In the previous month, the balance posted a surplus for the first time over the past three years with a $1.86-billion surplus.

Monday's figures also met expectations, as an Anadolu Agency survey on Friday showed that a group of 19 economists had forecast a surplus of $1.97 billion on average.

"Gold and energy excluded current account indicated a $5.07-billion surplus, in contrast to $588 million deficit observed in the same month of 2017," the Central Bank said.

"In this month, goods deficit decreased by $5.9 billion compared to the same month of 2017, realizing as $825 million," the bank said. "And primary income deficit decreased by $127 million to $938 million."

"Services item recorded net inflow of $3.5 billion increasing by $358 million year-on-year, mainly stemming from $166 million net increase in travel revenues observing as $2.85 billion in September 2018," it added.

The bank also reported that the 12-month rolling deficit fell to nearly $46 billion as of September, while the current account balance recorded a deficit of around $30 billion in January-September this year.

Turkey's year-end current account deficit would be $35.7 billion on average -- ranging between $28.5 billion and $41 billion -- according to the Anadolu Agency survey.

In 2017, Turkey's annual current account deficit was some $47.5 billion -- around 5.6 percent of the country's GDP. Over the last two decades, the country's highest annual current account deficit was seen in 2011 with $74.4 billion.

The country's new economic program, announced in September, is targeting a current-account-deficit-to-GDP ratio of 4.7 percent this year, 3.3 percent next year, 2.7 percent in 2020, and 2.6 percent in 2021.