04 May 2018•Update: 04 May 2018
By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA
Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Friday down 0.30 percent at 102,599.22 points with a trade volume of around 7.3 billion Turkish liras ($1.7 billion).
Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 309.91 points from Thursday's close of 102,909.13 points, while it opened the last business day of the week at 102,794.16 points.
On a weekly basis, the BIST 100 saw a 4.6 percent decline. The index hit its all-time high at 121,531.50 points on Jan. 29, while it has fallen by 12.7 percent since the beginning of 2018.
During the sessions on Friday, the benchmark index saw the lowest level at 101,548.55 points and the highest level at 103,425.74 points, while 35 stocks on the index were on the rise, 57 on the decline, and eight flat compared with the previous close.
The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 640.5 billion Turkish liras ($152.8 billion) at the close, while the banking and holding sector indices rose by 1.64 and 1.03 percent, respectively.
Among all sectors, the BIST sports index was the top gainer -- up 3.19 percent -- and the BIST mining index saw the biggest drop, falling 2.81 percent.
Stocks of prominent sports club Galatasaray (GSRAY) were the best performer with a 6.14 percent gain, while shares of events organizer Flap Kongre Toplanti Hizmetleri (FLAP) fell the most for a second day in a row, going down 18.50 percent.
The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were private lender Garanti Bank, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, leading petrochemicals producer Petkim, iron/steel producer Kardemir, state lender Halkbank.
The USD/TRY exchange climbed to 4.2470 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, compared with 4.2100 at Thursday's close. On a weekly basis, the dollar/lira rate rose by 4.9 percent, while it was 3.7590 at the beginning of this year.
The euro/lira exchange rate stood at 5.0680 by market close, versus 5.0430 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate was 5.7750, up from 5.7320 at Thursday's close.
The BIST Gold Exchange index was flat with a 0.01 percent rise at close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,314.10 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Friday, compared with $1,314.00 at Thursday's close.
As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $74.18 per barrel -- hovering between $73.25 and $74.34 during Friday -- up from around $66 at the beginning of this year.
