Turkey's Borsa Istanbul closes week with decline

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index dropped by 0.59 percent to close at 90,435.33 points on Friday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 91,174.09 points and lost 539.46 points from Thursday's close of 90,974.79 points.

The benchmark index hovered between 90,107.39 and 91,495.36 points, while 31 stocks on the index were on the rise, 54 were on the decline, and 15 were flat compared to the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was around 584.3 billion Turkish liras ($110.5 billion) at the close, and the daily trading volume was 3.1 billion Turkish liras ($594.7 million).

Shares of the world's major glass manufacturers Sisecam climbed the most, up 4.27 percent, while stocks of real estate investment trust Ihlas Gayrimenkul performed the worst, falling 15.32 percent.

The most-traded stocks were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, state lender Halkbank, mining company Koza Anadolu, and leading defense company Aselsan.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.2720 at close, down from Thursday's close of 5.2860.

The euro/lira rate increased at close; 6.0490 versus 6.0320 at the previous close.

One British pound traded for 6.7060 Turkish liras, while the GBP/TRY rate was 6.6970 at close on Thursday.

In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, the price of one ounce of gold was around $1,278.20 by market close, up from $1,270.80 the previous day.

The price of Brent crude oil dropped to $52.51 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) Friday, versus $53.73 at previous close.