Turkish stocks on rise at Friday close

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Friday up 0.19% to close at 108,869.14 points.

Starting the day at 109,008.91points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index gained nearly 210 points from Thursday's close at 108,658.98 points.

During the week's last day trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 108,352.00 points and 109,315.16 points -- 51 stocks on the index rose, 44 fell, and the remaining were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of nearly 742 billion Turkish liras ($129.1 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 9.8 billion Turkish liras ($1.74 billion).

By market capitalization, Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding, private lenders Garanti BBVA and Akbank were the top companies of BIST 100.

Shares of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, defense company Aselsan and a leasing company Is Finans Kiralama recorded the highest trading volumes.

Stocks of energy Is Finans Kiralama is the top gainer with a 6.27% hike, while shares of information technologies company Netas dropped the most, falling 6.82%.

An ounce of gold sold for $1,476.40 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,474.70 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil was $63.97 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Friday.