UPDATE - Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES FOR STOCKS AND SECTORS

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed Thursday down 0.74 percent at 101,138.08 points with a total trading volume of around 8.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.72 billion).

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 753.60-point decline from the previous close of 101,891.68 points, while it started the day at 103,027.12 points.

The benchmark index saw the lowest level at 100,888.80 points and the highest at 103,758.63 points, while 23 stocks on the index were on the rise, 74 decreasing and three flat compared with the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 636.5 billion Turkish liras ($131.6 billion) at the close, while the BIST banking and holding indices closed the day down 0.98 and 0.61 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the leasing factoring sector index fell the most with a 13.82 percent drop and the BIST mining index recorded the best performance, going up 4.66 percent.

Shares of events organizer Flap Kongre Toplanti Hizmetleri (FLAP) ended the day with the worst performance, falling 13.04 percent, stocks of mining company Koza Madencilik (KOZAA) were the top gainer, rising 9.50 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, iron and steel producer Kardemir, followed by state lender Halkbank and Koza Madencilik.

On Thursday, the USD/TRY exchange fell to 4.7580 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT), down from 4.8390 at Wednesday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also declined to 5.5870 by market close, versus 5.6650 at Wednesday's close, and one British pound traded for 6.3930 Turkish liras, while the GBP/TRY rate was 6.4850 at the previous close.

The BIST Gold Exchange index rose 0.56 percent at the close. In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, one ounce of gold traded for $1,299.20 as of 4.30 p.m. local time (1330GMT) Thursday, versus $1,292.00 at previous close.

As of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT), the price of Brent oil stood at $79.14 per barrel -- hovering between $78.57 and $79.78 during the day -- while it was around $66 at the beginning of this year.