Turkey's Borsa Istanbul up at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Friday up 0.56 percent at 107.614,27 points with a trading volume of around 6.8 billion Turkish liras ($1.68 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 599.14-point rise from Thursday's close of 107,015.13 points, while it opened the day at 107,228.70 points, up 0.20 percent.

The USD/TRY exchange stood at 4.0480 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, compared with 4.0290 at Thursday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also went down by over 2 percent to 4.8890 by market close, versus 4.9910 at the previous close, and one British pound also dropped over 2 percent to 5.6300 Turkish liras, compared with 5.7490 at Thursday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index fell by 0.23 percent at the close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,323.00 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Thursday, compared with $1,320.00 at Wednesday's close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $74.81 per barrel on the week's closing, compared with $74.78 at the closing of the Thursday.