Turkey's Borsa Istanbul ends week on high note

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the week with a 618.59-point hike to reach 90,382.71 points on Friday, marking a .0.12 percent fall compared with last Friday.

The BIST 100 index rose by 0.69 percent with a total trading volume of 3.1 billion Turkish liras (around $855 million).

On the last trading day of the week, banking and holding sector indices advanced by 1.86 and 0.28 percent, respectively.

Among all sector indices, the banking sector was the top performer while the investment trusts index came out as the worst, declining by 6.44 percent.

The top five heavily-traded stocks were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines followed by other lenders Akbank, Halkbank and Yapi Kredi.

Shares of Alkim Alkali Kimya (ALKIM), which operates in the chemical sector, enjoyed the largest increase with a 4.42 percent rise while the stocks of conglomerate Metro Holding (METRO), which has stakes in tourism, food processing, real estate, mining, and energy sectors, was the top loser of the day, down by 3.76 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was flat around 3.62.

The dollar was worth 3.6230 liras as of 5.00 p.m. (1400GMT) Friday, no change compared with Thursday's close.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index lost 0.48 percent while the price of gold per kilogram slightly decreased to 145,250 Turkish liras (some $40,039) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), compared with145,292 Turkish liras (approximately $40,105) at Thursday's close.