Turkish stocks up nearly 1 pct at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the week with a 766.83-point increase to stand at 83,067.15 points on Friday.

The BIST 100 index increased by 0.93 percent with a total trading volume of 4.2 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.1 billion).

On the last trading day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices rose by 1.32 and 0.35 percent, respectively. Among all sector indices, the sports index increased most with a 2.50 percent hike while the mining sector was the worst performer, with a 1.01 percent fall.

The most heavily-traded stocks were private lender Garanti Bank, the country's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, a major Turkish private sector airlines Pegasus, football club Besiktas, and another private bank Akbank.

Turkish Airlines said Friday it would launch flights from Istanbul to Guinea’s capital Conakry -- a port city on the Atlantic coast -- by the end of January.

Guinea will be the national flag carrier's 120th country it flies, while Conakry will be its 51st destination in Africa, according to the company statement.

Vestel, one of Turkey's leading electronics and domestic appliances manufacturer, enjoyed a 9.41 percent rise -- the highest of the day -- while Ihlas Holding suffered a fall of 2.94 percent, the biggest drop of the day.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index declined by 0.14 percent while gold was trading at 147,600 Turkish liras (around $38,655) per kilogram as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was flat to stand at 3.82 as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Friday, compared with 3.8260 in Thursday's closing session.

Analysts said the investors would follow Turkey's central bank's Monetary Policy Committee meeting next week, and externally, speeches of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who is taking over chair on Friday.