UPDATE - Turkey's Borsa Istanbul up at close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

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 benchmark index hovered between 106,669.95 points and 108,199.50 points, while 41 stocks on the index were on the rise, 14 on the decline, and 45 flat compared with the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was around 872 billion Turkish liras ($215.3 billion) at the close, while the banking sector index rose 1.77 percent and the holding sector index dropped 0.48 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the mining sector index was the best performer, rising 3.22 percent, and the BIST basic metal index recorded the biggest drop, declining 3.17 percent.

Shares of events organizer Flap Kongre Toplanti Hizmetleri (FLAP) climbed the most, up 19.01 percent, while stocks of conglomerate Tekfen Holding (TKFEN) -- involved in oil, power generation, construction and infrastructure -- performed the worst, falling 4.81 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti, state lender Halkbank, leading defense industry company Aselsan and iron/steel producer Kardemir.

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.

The economic confidence index in Turkey slipped month-on-month in April, falling 2 percent to 98.3, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Central Bank’s official reserve assets dropped 3.7 percent to $110.3 billion in March, the bank said on Friday.