Turkish stocks go up ahead of Sunday's referendum

BIST 100 index rises 0.21 pct to reach nearly 90,063 points; Turkish lira loses ground against US dollar

By Bahattin Gonultas

ANKARA (AA) - Gains in the banking sector kept Turkish stocks in positive territory on Friday ahead of the constitutional referendum on Sunday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was up 0.21 percent with a total trading volume of 2.3 billion Turkish liras (approximately $630 million).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 3.6880 liras as of 6 p.m. (1300GMT) Friday, compared with 3.678 liras at Thursday's close.

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index rose 0.09 percent while the price of gold per kilogram was 152,500 Turkish liras (around $41492) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), up from 151,800 (some $41,364) Turkish liras at Thursday's close.

On the last day of the week, the banking sector advanced by 1.78 percent while the holding index declined by 0.49 percent.

The five most-traded stocks were lenders Garanti Bank, Halkbank and Turkish Airlines, private lender Isbank and Akbank.

Millions of Turkish citizens will vote on Sunday in the referendum which calls for constitutional changes and handing wide-ranging executive powers to the president.

Kaynak:

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