Turkish stocks fall but lira recovers Friday

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish stocks ended 1.02 percent lower on Friday after gaining 1.38 percent the previous day amid U.S. data indicating the Fed will be in no hurry to raise interest rates.

Shares on the Borsa Istanbul national 100-share index ended the day down 805.02 points at 78,228.56.

On the last trading day of the week, the financial index lost about 0.91 percent, and the industry index and services index were down 0.77 and 1.19 percent, respectively.

Banking stocks were down 0.92 percent following a 1.99 percent rise Thursday. Shares in the trade sector were up 0.73 percent with hopes renewed Turkish-Russian ties will boost trade.

The mining sector ended 4.97 percent lower for the week after falling 1.47 percent on Thursday, with a total trading volume of 3.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.25 billion).

Shares in Borsa Istanbul's most actively traded stock, Garanti Bank, extended its loss over 1 percent to 7.81 lira, while heavily traded national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, THYAO, shares lost 1.58 percent to 5.62 lira.

State lender Halkbank and private lender Akbank's shares lost less than 1 percent to 8.68 lira and 8.12, respectively.

The biggest losers included Koza Altin (IS:KOZAL), which lost 7.23 percent or 0.74 points to trade at 9.50 in late trading, and Turkish Petroleum Refineries (TUPRAS), which lost 6.73 percent or 4.10 points after it posted its net profit decline by 53.5 percent, (331 million liras or $111 million) in the second quarter of this year, down from 710 million liras ($240 million) in the second quarter of 2015.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index rose 0.38 percent in value Friday after losing 0.63 percent the previous day, with gold trading at 127,350 Turkish liras per kilogram, down 128,250 at Thursday's close.

The lira gained against the U.S. dollar, reaching 2.9445 on Friday, which is the best rate since July 18.

The gain came after U.S. data showed the Fed will likely be in no hurry to raise interest rates. The ongoing normalization of relations between Moscow and Ankara also helped the Turkish currency make a recovery against the greenback.

U.S. retail sales were unexpectedly flat last month, down from a 0.8 percent increase in June, according to data from the Commerce Department on Friday, versus expectations of a 0.4 percent month-on-month gain.

The Producer Price Index in the world's largest economy also fell 0.4 percent in July, compared to the previous month, marking the fastest monthly decline since September 2015, according to the Labor Department earlier Friday. The market expectation for the data was an increase of 0.1 percent.

The local benchmark 10-year government bond yield rose to 9.42 percent from 9.40 percent.