UPDATE - Turkish stocks up 0.25% at weekly close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the week up 0.25% to close at 99,027.82 points on Friday.

Starting the last business day of the week at 99,231.71 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index surged 247.43 points from 98,780.38 points at Thursday's close.

On a weekly basis, the benchmark index posted a 4.28% drop this week. At the beginning of this year, the BIST 100 stood around 89,000 points.

During Friday trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 98,775.58 points and 99,782.66 points -- 63 stocks on the index rose, 32 fell, and five were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the week with a market value of around 665 billion Turkish liras ($113 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 8.02 billion Turkish liras ($1.37 billion).

By market capitalization, Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($7.91 billion), private lenders Garanti BBVA ($6.67 billion) and Akbank ($6.40 billion) were the top companies of BIST 100.

Shares of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Garanti BBVA, and Akbank recorded the highest trading volumes -- accounting for 42.7% of the benchmark index's total trade volume.

Stocks of conglomerate Metro Holding (METRO) climbed the most with a 12.63% hike, while shares of food industry company Tukas Gida (TUKAS) dropped the most for the second day in a row, falling 11.34%.

An ounce of gold sold for $1,498.75 at the weekly close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,504.00 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil was $60.45 per barrel as of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) on Friday -- with a day range of $59.22 to $60.64.

At the beginning of 2019, a barrel of Brent oil sold for around $53.