Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the week with a 432.59-point fall to stand at 76,972.15 points on Friday.

The BIST 100 index declined by 0.56 percent, and the total trading volume of the benchmark index hovered around 2 billion Turkish liras (approx. $570 million), a relatively low volume reflecting Christmas inaction in the international markets.

On the last trading day of the week, the banking sector index decreased by 1.03 percent and the holding sector index increased by 0.21 percent. Among all sector indexes, the investment trusts one rose the most -- 0.73 percent -- while the mining index fell the most, by 4.09 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were those of private lender Garanti Bank, food giant Ulker, the national flag carrier Turkish Airlines plus lenders Akbank and Halkbank

Yazicilar Holding, which operates mainly in beverages and retail trade sectors, enjoyed with a 6.76 percent rise of its shares -- the highest of the day. Energy and mining company Ipek Dogal Enerji's shares saw the biggest drop, for the second day in a row, with a 5.56 percent fall.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index declined by 0.26 percent in value, with gold trading at 128,050 Turkish liras ($36,457) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was flat to stand at 3.5130 as of 5.00 p.m. (1400GMT) on Friday, compared to 3.5140 ın Thursday's closing session.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute report on Friday, property sales in Turkey rose by 25.1 percent on an annual basis in November, to reach at 132,655 houses.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey reached $8.62 billion in the first 10 months of this year. Most notably, the country received $889 million in FDI in October, said the Economy Ministry on Friday.