Turkey's Borsa Istanbul goes up at close

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index increased 0.30 percent to close Friday at 96,520.07 points with a trading volume of around 6.3 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 293.08 point increase from Thursday's close of 96,226.99 points, while it opened the day at 96,827.20 points.

The BIST banking index and the BIST holding index increased 0.11 percent and 1.60 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the information technology index was the best performer, rising 6.14 percent, while the mining index was the sole sector to see a decline, down 2.60 percent.

The USD/TRY exchange rate increased to 4.5890 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, down from 4.5840 at Thursday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate increased to 5.3410 by market close, versus 5.3180 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate stood at 6.0400, compared with 6.0230 at Thursday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index ended the day with a 0.25 percent decrease. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,247.00 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Friday, compared with $1,250.10 at Thursday's close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $79.25 per barrel.