By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index fell by 1.06 percent to close at 110,932.48 points on Friday with around 6.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.5 billion) of trade volume.
Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with 1,189.67 points down from Thursday's close of 112,122.15 points, while it opened the last business day of the week at 111,956.73 points with a 0.15 percent fall. On a weekly basis, the benchmark index surged by 1.21 percent.
The USD/TRY exchange stood at 4.0580 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday — versus 4.0290 at Thursday's close — while it was 4.0970 last Friday. Since the beginning of this year, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate has climbed nearly 8 percent, while the average rate was 3.65 last year.
The euro/lira exchange rate fell to 4.9780 by market close — down from 4.9910 at the previous close — and one British pound traded for 5.6960 Turkish liras while the GBP/TRY rate was 5.7490 at the previous close.
The BIST Gold Exchange index was down by 0.37 percent at the daily close. In the Precious Metals and Diamond Markets of Borsa Istanbul, one ounce of gold traded for $1,342.50 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Friday, compared with $1,347.50 at Thursday's close.
As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $73.42 per barrel — hovering between $72.83 and $74.15 during Friday — climbing from around $66 at the beginning of this year.
