Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Friday down 2.79 percent at 95,875.71 points with a trading volume of around 7.5 billion Turkish liras ($1.67 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 2,747.95-point decrease from the previous close of 98,623.65 points, while it opened the day at 98,190.74 points, down 0.44 percent.

The USD/TRY exchange slightly slipped to 4.4910 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, down from 4.4940 at Thursday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also dropped to 5.2830 by market close, versus 5,3140 at the previous close, and one British pound was traded for 6.0280 Turkish liras, compared with 6.0320 at Thursday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index fell by 0.12 percent at the close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,298.20 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Friday, compared with $1,299.70 at the previous close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $76.25 per barrel -- hovering between $76.15 and $77.59 during the course of Friday -- up from around $66 at the beginning of 2018.