Turkish stocks end week with gain

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the week up 0.28% to close at 101,849.19 points on Friday, marking the highest weekly close of the past 18 weeks.

After starting the last business day of the week at 102,382.38 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index climbed 282.94 points from 101,566.25 points at Thursday's close.

On a weekly basis the benchmark index posted a 4.89% hike. At the beginning of this year, the BIST 100 stood around 89,000 points.

During Friday's trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 101,665.15 points and 102,881.92 points -- 53 stocks on the index rose, 33 fell, and 14 were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the week with a market value of nearly 678 billion Turkish liras ($119 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 8.27 billion Turkish liras ($1.46 billion).

By market capitalization, Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($8.53 billion), private lenders Garanti BBVA ($7.16 billion) and Akbank ($6.97 billion) were the top companies of BIST 100.

Shares of National flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Garanti BBVA and state-run lender Halkbank recorded the highest trading volumes on Friday -- accounting for around 43% of the benchmark index's total trade volume.

Stocks of airline company Pegasus (PGSUS) showed the best performance -- up 5.04% -- as shares of conglomerate Ittifak Holding (ITTFH) did the worst with a 4.62% drop.

One ounce of gold was sold for $1,437.15 at the weekly close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,415.70 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil was $62.18 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Friday -- with a day range of $62.04 to $63.31.

At the beginning of 2019, a barrel of Brent oil was sold for around $53.