Borsa Istanbul up at close

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark index closed the week with a 608.84-point hike to 89,611.40 points on Friday.

The BIST 100 index advanced by 0.68 percent with a total trading volume of 3.3 billion Turkish liras (approximately $883 million) compared with last Friday's close at 89,722.05. The index has lost 0.12 percent in one week.

On the last trading day of the week, the banking sector climbed 1.49 percent while the holding index was flat with only a 0.03 percent rise.

Among all sector indices, the leasing factoring index was the top performer -- increasing 3.11 percent -- while the wood-paper printing sector was the worst performer with a 1.38 percent drop.

The top five heavily-traded stocks were private lender Garanti, major cement producer Afyon Cimento, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, followed by other lenders Halkbank and Akbank.

Shares of Tat Gida (TATGD), which operates in the food sector under Turkish business conglomerate Koc Holding, were the best performer of the day, rising 8.50 percent while major coated cardboard producer Kartonsan (KARTN) suffered the biggest drop, with its shares going down 3.23 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate continued to hover above 3.70. One dollar was worth 3.7320 liras as of 5.00 p.m. (1400 GMT) Friday, compared with 3.7520 at Thursday's closing.

The dollar traded for 3.7250 liras last Friday, March 3 after seeing a historic hike -- over 3.90 liras -- in mid-January.

The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index declined 0.51 percent while the price of gold per kilogram was down to 142,000 Turkish liras (around $38,010) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), compared with 145,750 Turkish liras (some $38,862) at Thursday's close.