Turkish stocks end week down

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Friday down 0.30 percent at 102,599.22 points with a trade volume of around 7.3 billion Turkish liras ($1.7 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 309.91 points from Thursday's close of 102,909.13 points, while it opened the last business day of the week at 102,794.16 points.

On a weekly basis, the BIST 100 saw a 4.6 percent decline. The index hit its all-time high at 121,531.50 points on Jan. 29, while it has fallen by 12.7 percent since the beginning of 2018.

The USD/TRY exchange climbed to 4.2470 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, compared with 4.2100 at Thursday's close. On a weekly basis, the dollar/lira rate rose by 4.9 percent, while it was 3.7590 at the beginning of this year.

The euro/lira exchange rate stood at 5.0680 by market close, versus 5.0430 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate was 5.7750, up from 5.7320 at Thursday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index was flat with a 0.01 percent rise at close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,314.10 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Friday, compared with $1,314.00 at Thursday's close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $74.18 per barrel -- hovering between $73.25 and $74.34 during Friday -- up from around $66 at the beginning of this year.