Borsa Istanbul down at weekly close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Friday at 122,141.75 points, down 0.33% from the previous close.

Starting the day at 123,963.69 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index slipped 398.47 points from Thursday’s close of 122,540.22 points.

During Friday’s trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 120,761.40 points and 123,936.26 points, with 52 stocks on the index rising, 40 falling and eight flat compared to the previous close.

The benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 11.96 billion Turkish liras (nearly $2.01 billion).

Stocks of insurance company Gunes Sigorta gained the most, up 6.59%, while shares of polyester producer Sasa did the worst, falling 2.41%.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 5.9430 as of 17.00 a.m. local time (1400GMT) on Friday, versus 5.9340 at Thursday’s close.

The Euro/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 6.5600, versus 6.5790, while one British pound was traded for 7.7990 Turkish liras. It was 7.8040 at Thursday's close.

The price of Brent oil was $61 per barrel as of 6.25p.m. local time (1525GMT) on Friday.