Turkey's Borsa Istanbul goes down at close

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the week down 0.41 percent to reach 103,558.98 points on Friday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index decreased 425.41 points from Thursday's close of 103,984.39 points with a total trading volume of 5.1 billion Turkish liras (nearly $1.3 billion).

The banking sector index fell by 1.25 percent while the holding sector index increased by 0.74 percent.

Among all sectors, the construction sector index was the top performer -- up 1.85 percent -- while the basic metal sector index suffered the biggest drop with 2.05 percent.

The stocks of Turkish conglomerate Alarko Holding (ALARK) performed the best, up 7.69 percent, while state lender VakifBank's (VAKBN) stocks suffered the most, falling 3.63 percent.

The top five most-traded stocks were defense giant Aselsan, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lenders Garanti and Isbank, and state lender Halkbank.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate slipped to 3.9250 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, down from 3.9380 at Thursday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also decreased to 4.6600, down from the previous day's close of 4.6770.

The BIST Gold Exchange index lost 0.20 percent in value, while the price of gold per kilogram rose to 161,500 Turkish liras (around $41,092) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), compared with Thursday's closing price of 162,575 Turkish liras (some $41,240).

As of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) Friday, the price of brent oil was $64.09 per barrel, compared with $62.37 of previous close.