Turkish stocks up at close as lira hits 8-month high

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index went up 601.23 points to close the week at 109,755.14 points while the Turkish lira hit an eight-month high against the U.S. dollar on Friday.

The Turkish lira strengthened against the dollar and Turkish stocks rose by 0.55 percent after Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s speech at Jackson Hole offered no hints on U.S. monetary policy or the outlook for interest rates.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell below 3.45 by 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) Friday, compared with 3.48 at Thursday's close.

Last Friday, one dollar traded for 3.5230 Turkish liras. The exchange rate saw its historic high in mid-January this year, climbing to around 3.94 Turkish liras.

On a weekly basis, the BIST 100 increased by 2.38 percent compared with last Friday's close at 107,202.43 points.

Since the beginning of the year, the benchmark index has risen 41.15 percent, and reached its highest level of all time by hitting 110,232.52 points on Aug. 15.

On the last trading day of the week, total trading volume of Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was 3.8 billion Turkish liras (nearly $1.1 billion).

The BIST banking and holding sector indexes went up by 1.07 and 0.21 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the textile leather sector performed the best with a 2.90 percent hike while the BIST tourism index fell the most, going down 1.07 percent.

Shares of poultry and feed producer Banvit (BANVT) enjoyed the biggest rise on Friday -- up 19.94 percent -- and stocks of food giant Ulker Biskuvi (ULKER) saw the biggest drop of the day with a 2.16 percent fall.

The BIST 100's most traded stocks were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), private lender Garanti (GARAN), mining company Koza Madencilik (KOZAA), another private lender Akbank (AKBNK) and energy company Zorlu Enerji (ZOREN).

Borsa Istanbul's Gold Exchange index was flat while the price of gold per kilogram also stood at 144,000 Turkish liras ($41,720) as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT), down from 144,200 Turkish liras ($41,377) at Thursday's close.

The price of gold per kilogram was 146,800 Turkish liras ($41,691) at close on Friday, Aug. 18.