Turkish Stocks Down At Close

Turkey's benchmark index closed the week with a 879.93-point drop to 88,258.45 points on Friday.



The BIST 100 index fell by 0.99 percent with a total trading volume of 3.8 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.06 billion). Compared with last Friday's close at 88,830.41, the index has down 0.64 percent in one week.



On the last trading day of the week, the banking and holding indexes were down by 1 and 1.23 percent, respectively.



Among all sectors indexes, the information technologies sector was the best performer -- up 1.33 percent -- while the leasing factoring index was the worst, falling 2.83 percent.



The most heavily traded stocks were private lender Garanti, the country's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, state lender Halkbank plus other private lenders Is Bankasi and Akbank.



Shares of Nurol GYO (NUGYO), a real estate investment trust, were the top gainers of the day, rising 3.75 percent.



Stocks of EIS Eczacibasi Ilac (ECILC), a pharmacy company operates under a major conglomerate Eczacibasi Group, suffered from the biggest drop of the day, declining 5.15 percent.



The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate hovered below 3.60. One dollar was worth 3.5940 liras as of 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Friday, compared to 3.5670 at Thursday's closing.



The dollar traded for 3.6660 liras at last Friday, Feb. 17, after seeing a historic hike -- over 3.90 liras -- in mid-January.



The Borsa Istanbul Gold Exchange index gained 1.13 percent while the price of gold per kilogram increased to 144,750 Turkish liras (around $40,347) as of 4.30 p.m. (1330GMT), compared with 142,800 Turkish liras (around $40,033) at Thursday's closing.



On Friday, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said house sales in Turkey had reached 95,389 in January, marking a 12.8 percent hike year-on-year.



The government has received applications worth 23 billion Turkish liras ($6.45 billion) for regional projects in the country's east, Development Minister Lutfi Elvan said Friday.



He said the development program for the country's east is the government's highest priority, adding investors were showing great interest.



"The country's eastern region will not be called 'underdeveloped' anymore. I strongly believe that the program will be successful," he said.



On June 17, 2016, the government announced it would introduce problem-free investment zones for companies in eastern Turkey, where some of the country's most underdeveloped regions are located. -