Turkey's Borsa Istanbul hits second highest close ever

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the week with a 384.55-point hike to reach 92,423.93 points on Friday, marking it the second highest close of all time.

The highest close of the country's benchmark index was recorded at 93,178.87 points on May 22, 2013.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 0.42 percent with a total trading volume of 4.3 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.18 billion) and increased by 2.62 percent in a week compared with last Friday's close of 90,063.69 points.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was flat at 3.6440 liras as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Friday, compared with 3.6450 liras at Thursday's close.

A dollar traded for 3.6920 liras last Friday, after seeing a historic jump to 3.94 liras in mid-January.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index increased by 0.08 percent while the price of gold per kilogram was 150,300 Turkish liras (some $41,225) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), up from 149,850 Turkish liras (around $41,051) at Thursday's close.

On the last trading day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices advanced by 0.12 percent and 0.89 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the construction index was the best performer with an increase of 2.05 percent while the mining sector was the worst one, declining 1.31 percent.

Shares of Kardemir Karabuk Demir Celik (KRDMD), which operates in the iron and steel industry, advanced the most on Friday -- up 4.10 percent -- while stocks of Koza Gold Corporation (KOZAA) saw the largest decline, falling 2.70 percent.

The top traded stocks were private lender Garanti, national flag-carrier Turkish Airlines, steel and iron producer Eregli, followed by state lender Halkbank plus major defense system producer Aselsan.