Turkey's Borsa Istanbul ends week lower

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index declined by 0.57 percent to close at 109,604.01 points on Friday with a 5.4 billion Turkish lira ($1.3 billion) trade volume.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 631.40-point drop from Thursday's close of 110,235.41 points, while it opened the last business day of the week at 110,715.29 points. On a weekly basis, the benchmark index recorded a 4.47 percent down.

The USD/TRY exchange was flat at 4.0970 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, compared with its previous close of 4.0910. Since the beginning of this year, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate climbed by nearly 9 percent, while the average rate was 3.65 last year.

The euro/lira exchange rate rose slightly to 5.0520 by market close -- up from 5.0390 at Thursday's close -- and one British pound traded for 5.8550 Turkish liras while the GBP/TRY rate was 5.8220 at the previous close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index fell by 0.88 percent at daily close. In the Precious Metals and Diamond Markets of Borsa Istanbul, one ounce of gold traded for $1,335.10 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Friday, down from $1,347.00 at the previous close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $72.36 per barrel -- hovering between $71.60 and $72.71 during the day -- climbing from around $66 since the beginning of this year.