The Baltic Exchange's dry bulk index, a key indicator of shipping rates for vessels transporting dry commodities, experienced a slight increase of 0.1%, reaching 1,762 points on Friday. This came after a decline of more than 2% the previous day. The smaller supramax index contributed to the main index's gain, adding 7 points to settle at 1,026 points. On the other hand, the capesize index, normally associated with transporting large cargoes of iron ore and coal around 150,000 tons, dropped for a second consecutive day, slipping 0.2% to 2,583 points. Similarly, the panamax index, which typically handles 60,000-70,000 tons of coal or grain, saw a slight decrease of 0.1%, closing at 1,612 points. Despite these fluctuations, the benchmark index achieved an impressive weekly increase of 12.4%.