Turkish stocks end day with losses

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the week down 0.18 percent to close at 114,737.54 points on Friday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 210.04 points from Thursday's close of 114,947.58 points. The BIST 100 had a total trade volume of around 6.6 billion Turkish liras ($1.6 billion) on the last trading day of the week.

During trading hours, the benchmark index hovered between 114,284.69 points and 115,279.36 points, while 51 stocks on the index were up, 38 were down, and 11 were flat compared to the previous close. The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 717.8 billion Turkish liras ($178.2 billion) at Friday's close.

The banking and holding sector indices ended lower, falling 0.78 percent and 0.55 percent, respectively. Among all sectors, the BIST mining index performed the best -- up 3.14 percent -- while the telecommunications sector index saw the largest decline, losing 3.17 percent.

Shares of polyester producer Sasa (SASA) were the top gainer, adding 8.41 percent in value, while stocks of event and congress organizer Flap Kongre Toplanti Hizmetleri (FLAP) suffered the most for a second day in a row, falling 19.97 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, state lender Halkbank, polyester producer Sasa, private lender Garanti, and gold mining firm Koza Altin.

The USD/TRY exchange rate was flat at 4.0340 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, versus its previous close of 4.0360. On a weekly basis, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira rate climbed nearly 2 percent, compared with 3.9580 on Friday, March 30.

The euro/lira exchange rate stood at 4.9480 by market close compared with 4.9470 at Thursday's close, and one British pound traded for 5.6920 Turkish liras versus 5.6620 at the previous close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index was flat, inching down 0.08 percent. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,324.00 as of 4:30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Friday, compared to $1,325.10 at the previous close.

As of 6:05 p.m. local time (1505GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $67.40 per barrel, after hovering between $67.31 and $68.62 during the day.