Turkey's Borsa Istanbul flat at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the week with just a 0.85-point increase to stand at 83,827.39 points on Friday.

The BIST 100 index was flat with no percentage change while total trading volume was 3.3 billion Turkish liras (approximately $852 billion), relatively low compared to recent weeks.

The country's benchmark index advanced approximately one percent -- 760.24 points -- in a week which saw 83,067.15 points at the closing session on Friday, Jan. 20.

On the last trading day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices were also flat, rising only 0.01 and 0.08 percent, respectively.

Among all sector indices, the chemical petrol plastic sector increased most with a 1.13 percent hike while the electricity index saw the biggest drop of the day, declining 2.17 percent.

The most heavily-traded stocks were private lender Garanti Bank, the country's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, lenders Halkbank and Akbank, followed by major cement producer Afyon Cimento.

Shares of Halk GYO, a real estate investment trust operating under state lender Halkbank, were the top gainer of the day with a 3.19 percent rise. Ak Enerji stocks, traded on the electricity sector index, fell most, with a 3.41 percent drop.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index decreased by 0.50 percent while gold was trading at 147,680 Turkish liras (around $38,126) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate increased slightly to stand at 3.8730 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Friday, compared to 3.8610 at Thursday's closing session.