Turkish shares, lira close lower Friday

By Bahattin Gonultas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish shares closed flat on Friday after rallying on the previous day.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST-100, the country’s benchmark index, closed down by 0.05 percent (39.50 points) at 79,756.44

On the last trading day of the week, the information sector index rose about 2.15 percent, but the banking sector and holding sector indexes were down by 0.67 percent and 0.01 percent, respectively.

Borsa Istanbul's most actively traded stocks were private lenders Garanti Bank, state lender Akbank and national flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

The largest winner was tyre manufacturer Goodyear, (GOODY), which saw an increase by 4.51 percent or 0.16 points.

- Gold price up

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index also rose by 0.15 percent in value on Friday compared to Thursday's closing, with gold trading at 126,900 Turkish liras per kilogram.

The Lira was negative, weakening against the dollar at 2.9522 compared to the previous close at 2.9421.