Turkish stocks end Friday up 1.81 pct

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the week up 1.81 percent to close at 93,784.18 points on Friday.

After starting the day at 92,499.04 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index climbed 1,663.85 points from Thursday's close of 92,120.33 points.

On a weekly basis, the benchmark index posted a 6.06 percent decline, although it has surged 5.53 percent from 88,865.01 points at the close on the first business day of 2019.

During Friday's trading, the BIST 100's daily low was 91,904.36 points while it peaked at 94,246.97 points -- 84 stocks on the index rose, 13 fell, and three were flat compared to the previous close.

The index posted a daily trading volume of some 7.11 billion Turkish liras ($1.26 billion), closing the week with a market value of around 616 billion Turkish liras ($111 billion).

By market capitalization, the leading companies of the BIST 100 were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding and private lenders Garanti Bankasi and Akbank.

The highest trading volumes were seen in stocks of Garanti Bankasi, Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, and Akbank.

Shares of furniture manufacturer Dogtas Kelebek Mobilya (DGKLB) enjoyed the highest increase, up 17.20 percent, and stocks of conglomerate Tekfen Holding (TKFEN) -- involved in oil, power generation, construction and infrastructure -- dropped the most, falling 1.91 percent.

One ounce of gold sold for $1,298.40 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,305.60 at the close on Thursday.

With a day range of $67.16 to $68.31, the price of Brent oil was around $67.54 per barrel as of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) on Friday.

At the beginning of 2019, the price of Brent oil was around $53 per barrel.