Muhammed Ali Gürtaş
November 02, 2018•Update: November 02, 2018
By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA
Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Friday up 1.88 percent to close at 94,123.02 points.
Starting the last business day of the week at 93,006.52 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day up 1,735.61 points from Thursday's close.
On a weekly basis, the index surged 3.95 percent, compared with last Friday's close of 90,541.53 points. Last month, the BIST 100 saw a fall of 8.46 percent.
The BIST 100 hovered between 92,478.02 and 94,570.59 points during Friday's trading. Compared to the previous close, 66 stocks on the index rose, 20 fell, and 14 were flat.
At weekly close, the leading shares of the BIST 100 by market capitalization were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($6.91 billion), energy giant Tupras ($5.93 billion), and iron and steel producer Eregli Demir Celik ($5.88 billion), while the total market value of the benchmark index was nearly 612.5 billion liras ($110 billion).
Friday's total trading volume of the benchmark index was 8.86 billion liras ($1.62 billion), as the highest trade volumes posted by national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, defense company Aselsan, state-run lender Halkbank, iron and steel producer Kardemir.
Shares of Kardemir (KRDMD) showed the top performance by gaining 8.33 percent in value, while stocks of energy company Odas Elektrik (ODAS) recorded the largest decline, falling 6.73 percent.
Among all sectors, the BIST basic metal index increased the most on Friday, up 5.88 percent. The BIST mining and real estate investment trust indices were the only sectors ended the day with loss, going down 0.05 and 0.03 percent, respectively.
By market close, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira (USD/TRY) exchange rate was 5.4140, versus 5.5560 at the previous close. This week the lira gained 3.9 percent against the dollar.
The euro/lira rate fell to 6.1890, compared with 6.3500 at Thursday's close.
The GBP/TRY rate was 7,0730 at close, down from 7,1900 liras at the previous close.
In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold was sold for $1,232.40 at Friday's close, up from $1,230.20.
After hovering between $72.44 and $73.49 during the day, the price of Brent oil was around $72.65 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) Friday.
At the beginning of this year, one barrel of Brent oil sold for $66.
