Turkish shares go up at close of Borsa Istanbul

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index was up 0.67 percent at the close of the daily session Friday.

The BIST 100 index rose 502.74 points to close at 75,638.96. The total trading volume of the country's stock exchange market was 3.7 billion Turkish liras (approx. $1.09 billion).

On the last trading day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices advanced 0.96 and 0.88 percent, respectively.

Among sector indices, the communication index rose the most – 2.15 percent – while the biggest decline was seen in the mining index, which fell 2.30 percent.

The most heavily traded stocks were lenders Garanti Bank, Halkbank, Akbank, and Vakifbank, and national flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

Shares of Otokar, a major defense industry firm part of Koc Holding, were the top percent gainer with an increase of 4.50 percent, while gold miner Koza Altin suffered a 5.08 percent drop, the biggest of the day, amid an unfolding mining disaster in Siirt, Turkey's southeast.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index fell 1.30 percent in value, with gold trading at 131,600 Turkish liras (some $39,041) per kilogram.

The Turkish lira continued to lose value against the U.S. dollar on the last trading day of the week to trade at 3.3690, compared to 3.3470 at Thursday close.

Analysts said that next week investors would follow possible action by the Turkish Central Bank and the government to halt the slide in the lira as well as more messages by the U.S. Fed about a possible interest rate hike.