Turkish stocks flat at close

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the day at 89,552.61 points on Friday, slightly up 0.05% from the previous close.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 89,510.88 points. As of the daily close, it had gained 41.73 points from Thursday's close of 89,510.88 points.

During the day, the index hovered between 89,043.06 points and 89,891.34 points.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 626 billion Turkish liras ($94.2 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 8.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.2 billion).

On the last day of the week, 54 stocks on the index rose and 38 were down compared to Thursday.

The highest trading volumes were posted by petrochemical firm Petkim, oil refinery giant Tupras, and defense giant Aselsan.

Major electronics and appliances manufacturer Arcelik was the best performer, with its shares up 5.24%, while real estate investment company Reysas dropped the most, losing 4.85%.

On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul announced it has delayed the elimination of double zeros from its indices from late April until July 6, saying changing market conditions due to coronavirus had pushed the date back.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,614.00 by market close, down from $1,589.05 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was over $33.54 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) on Friday.