Turkish stocks go down at close

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the week with a 211.83-point drop to 89,722.05 points on Friday.

The BIST 100 index fell by 0.24 percent with a total trading volume of 3.9 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.05 billion); compared with last Friday's close at 88,258.45, the index has gone up by 0.16 percent in one week.

On the last trading day of the week, the banking and holding indexes were down by 0.57 and 0.56 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors indexes, the leasing and factoring sector was the best performer -- up 3.19 percent -- while the trade index was the worst, falling 0.88 percent.

The most heavily-traded stocks were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, biggest petrochemical producer company Petkim, private lender Akbank and state lender Halkbank.

Shares of Turkish conglomerate Ihlas Holding (IHLAS) were the top gainers of the day, rising 8.11 percent.

Stocks of Metro Holding (METRO), active in the tourism, food processing, real estate, mining, and energy sectors, suffered the biggest drop of the day, declining by 6.21 percent. Shares of the company were the best performer Thursday, rising 15 percent.

On Friday, Turkey's annual inflation rate was 10.13 percent in February, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) figures released.

Consumer prices in Turkey rose 10.13 percent year-on-year in February from 9.22 percent in January, TurkStat said.

Meanwhile, monthly inflation also climbed 0.81 percent in February over the previous month, higher than experts' predictions.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate hovered above 3.70. One dollar was worth 3.7250 liras as of 5.15 p.m. (1415 GMT) Friday, compared with 3.6990 at Thursday's closing.

The dollar traded for 3.5940 liras at last Friday, Feb. 24, after seeing a historic hike -- over 3.90 liras -- in mid-January.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index lost 1.05 percent while the price of gold per kilogram slightly increased to 147,300 Turkish liras (around $39,571) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), compared with 147,280 Turkish liras (around $39,780) at Thursday's closing.