By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Friday up 1.16 percent at 94,082.34 points with a trade volume of around 6.5 billion Turkish liras ($1.35 billion).
Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 1,079.41-point hike from Thursday's close of 93,002.93 points, while it started the last business day of the week at 93,268.93 points.
The benchmark index hovered between 92,787.17 points and 94,169.41 points during trading hours, while 76 stocks on the BIST 100 rose, 15 fell, and nine were flat compared to the previous close.
On a weekly basis, the BIST 100 rose 4.75 percent compared to its close at 89,897.67 points last Friday. Since the beginning of this year, the index has fallen around 20 percent, as it hit its all-time high at 121,531.50 points on Jan. 29.
On Friday, the total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was around 623 billion Turkish liras ($129 billion) at close.
Among all sectors, the BIST construction index was the top gainer, up 3.22 percent, while the leasing factoring sector index fell the most, declining 0.46 percent.
Shares of casting producer Cemas Dokum (CEMAS) gave the best performance of the day, up 20.00 percent, and stocks of real estate investment trust Ozderici (OZGYO) saw the largest decline, dropping 4.22 percent.
One U.S. dollar traded for 4.7810 Turkish liras as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT), down from 4.8310 at Thursday's close. The USD/TRY rate declined by 1.07 percent on a weekly basis, while it was 3.65 on average last year.
The euro/lira exchange rate was flat at 5.6070 by market close, versus 5.6090 at the previous close, and one British pound traded for 6.2830 Turkish liras, while the GBP/TRY rate was 6.2820 at Thursday's close.
In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,213.30 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Friday, down from $1,217.00 at the previous close.
As of 6:45 p.m. local time (1545GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $72.88 per barrel — hovering between $72.28 and $73.47 on Friday — climbing from around $66 at the beginning of 2018.
