UPDATE - Borsa Istanbul climbs above 101,500 points at close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index surged by 1.76% to close Thursday at 101,566.25 points.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 99,716.67 points. As of closing, it gained 1,760.08 points from Wednesday's close of 99,806.17 points.

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The benchmark index hovered between 99,388.13 and 101,844.61 points during Thursday's trading.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 676.1 billion Turkish liras ($118.8 billion) by market close, and the daily trading volume was 8 billion Turkish liras ($1.4 billion).

On Thursday, 82 stocks on the index rose, 14 were down, and four were flat compared to the previous close.

The top-listed companies by market value were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding and private lenders Garanti and Akbank.

The highest trading volumes were posted by Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, and state lender Halkbank.

The day's best performer was fertilizer provider Gubretas Turkey Bank, with its shares up 7.27%, while stocks of conglomerate Ittifak Holding dropped most, down 4.55%.

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The price of one ounce of gold was around $1,415.70 by market close, up from $1,406.00 at the previous close, according to Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets data.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $62.25 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) Thursday.