Turkish stocks fall as presidential runoff looms, banks lead losses

Turkey's benchmark BIST-100 index fell more than 6% at the open, prompting a market-wide circuit breaker, before recouping some losses to trade 2.9% lower by 0857 GMT. The banking sub-index led losses on the index with a 9.10% fall.

Turkish stocks fell on Monday as the presidential election appeared headed for a runoff with incumbent president Tayyip Erdogan in the lead. Turkey's benchmark BIST-100 index fell more than 6% at the open, prompting a market-wide circuit breaker, before recouping some losses to trade 2.9% lower by 0857 GMT.

The banking sub-index led losses on the index with a 9.10% fall. Shares of Garanti Bank fall as much as 10% in morning trade, while Yapı Kredi Bank was down 9.97%.

Shares of Turkish real estate company Emlak Konut REIT , steelmaker Kardemir, gold mining company Koza Altın and defense company Aselsan were among the best performers on BIST-100 index, rising between 5.5% and 9.9%.