UPDATE - Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at weekly close

UPDATES WITH MORE FIGURES

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index fell 1.50% to 1,109.88 points at close on Friday.

After starting the day at 1,138.49 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index lost 16.92 points from Thursday's close of 1,126.80 points.

The total market value of the benchmark index was around 814 billion Turkish liras ($111 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 32.1 billion Turkish liras ($4.4 billion).

During the day, the index hovered between 1,125.42 and 1,141.32 points.

Shares of private lender Garanti, energy giant Tupras and petrochemical company Petkim saw the highest trading volumes.

Stocks of conglomerate Tekfen Holding registered the best performance, up 5.26%, while shares of energy company Zorlu Enerji suffered the most, losing 9.97%.

The price of Brent oil was $44.03 per barrel as of 6.00 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Friday.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s president on Friday announced the discovery of major natural gas reserves in the Black Sea, near the Turkish coast.

"Turkey has made the biggest natural gas discovery in the Black Sea," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the historic Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.

Turkey aims to have the natural gas ready for public use in 2023, he said, adding that new natural gas finds in nearby areas of the Black Sea region are likely.