Borsa Istanbul up at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Friday up 0.55 percent at 93,274.15 points with a trading volume of around 5.7 billion Turkish liras ($886.7 million).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 510.84-point increase from Thursday's close of 92,763.31 points, while it opened the day at 93,170.94 points, up 0.44 percent.

Since the beginning of this year, the index has fallen around 20.6 percent, as it hit its all-time high at 121,531.50 points on Jan. 29.

The benchmark index hovered between 92,538.54 points and 93,675.91 points, while 44 stocks were on the rise, 45 on the decline, and 11 flat compared to the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 614.7 billion liras ($93.3 billion) at close, while the banking and holding sectors indices increased 1.42 percent and 0.52 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the telecommunications sector index was the best performer, up 4.09 percent, and the mining sector index saw the biggest drop, down 1.46 percent.

Stocks of event organizer Flap climbed the most, up 11.84 percent, while stocks of private equity firm Gozde Girisim suffered the worst, falling 4.46 percent.

The BIST 100's most traded listed companies were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lenders Garanti and Akbank, defense company Aselsan and iron/steel producer Kardemir.

The USD/TRY exchange rate dropped by 1.75 percent to 6.4500 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, compared with 6.5650 at Thursday's close.

The U.S. dollar / Turkish lira exchange rate also decreased by over 2 percent from last week's close of 6.5840.

The euro/lira exchange rate also fell by 2.5 percent to 7.4690 by market close, versus 7.6610 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate reached 8.3620 Turkish liras, compared with 8.5280 at Thursday's close.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,195.00 as of 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) Friday, compared with $1,192.25 at the previous close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil dropped slightly to $76.21 per barrel at the week's closing, compared with $76.84 at the end of Thursday.

Next week on Monday, Turkish Statistical Institute will announce gross domestic product (GDP) for Q2.