UPDATE - Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at close

UPDATE WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index dropped 0.19 percent to 96,588.20 points with a trading volume of around 5.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.2 billion) in the closing session on Tuesday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day down 185.29 points from the previous close of 96,773.49 points, while it opened the day at 97,027.91 points, up 0.26 percent.

The benchmark index hovered between 96,450.39 points and 97,445.82 points, while 36 stocks on the index were on the rise, 57 on the decline, and seven flat compared to the previous close.

The total market value of listed shares on the BIST 100 was 638.23 billion liras ($138.07 billion) at the close, while the banking and holding sector indices lost 1.49 percent and 0.71 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the chemical petrol plastic sector index saw the best performance, going up 2.49 percent, and the construction sector index saw the biggest drop, losing 1.70 percent.

Stocks of Soda Sanayii (SODA), part of Turkey's Sisecam, a top international glass manufacturer, were the top gainer -- rising 4.61 percent -- and shares of Turkish conglomerate Ihlas Holding (IHLAS) saw the biggest drop of the day, down 4.76 percent.

The BIST 100's most-traded listed companies were national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, defense company Aselsan, private lender Garanti, iron and steel producer Kardemir, and Eregli Demir Celik, another iron and steel producer.

The USD/TRY exchange rate rose to 4.6780 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Tuesday, compared with 4.6230 at the previous close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also climbed to 5.4540 by market close, versus 5.3700 at the previous close, and one British pound was traded for 6.1690 Turkish liras, compared with 6.0550 at Monday's close.

The price of Brent oil fell slightly to $77.21 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) Tuesday, from $77.75 at the previous close.