Turkish stocks down at Friday's close

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye's benchmark stock index ended Friday with losses, down 0.41% to reach 3,281.61 points.

After starting the day at 3,303.54 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 13.66 points from Thursday's close of 3,295.27 points.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 2.6 trillion Turkish liras ($143 billion) by close, with a daily trading volume of 53.1 billion Turkish liras ($2.9 billion).

One ounce of gold traded at $1,660.00 by market close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent oil decreased almost 5% as the rising value of the US dollar repelled buyers from dollar-indexed oil, and interest rate hikes by major economies triggered demand uncertainty.

International benchmark Brent crude traded at $86.13 per barrel at 4.52 p.m. local time (1352 GMT) for a 4.78% decrease from the closing price of $90.46 a barrel in the previous trading session.

Brent oil price dropped to its lowest level since Jan. 26 when it was trading at $87.79 a barrel.