Turkish stocks end week down

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Friday down 0.52 percent at 101,852.48 points with a trade volume of around 5.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.33 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 528.21 points from Thursday's close of 102,380.68 points, while it opened the last business day of the week at 102,467.96 points.

On a weekly basis, the BIST 100 saw a 0.73 percent decline. The index hit its all-time high at 121,531.50 points on Jan. 29, while it has fallen by 16.20 percent since the beginning of 2018.

The USD/TRY exchange climbed to 4.2950 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Friday, compared with 4.2480 at Thursday's close. On a weekly basis, the dollar/lira rate rose by 1.13 percent, while it was 3.7590 at the beginning of this year.

The euro/lira exchange rate stood at 5.1390 by market close, versus 5.0670 at the previous close, while the British pound/lira exchange rate was 5.8500, up from 5.7500 at Thursday's close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index rose 0.23 percent rise at close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,320.10 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Friday, compared with $1,317.00 at Thursday's close.

As of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $77.44 per barrel -- hovering between $77.06 and $77.57 during the course of Friday -- up from around $66 at the beginning of this year.