UPDATE - Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index on Thursday closed at 115,642.04 points, falling 2.98% from the previous close.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 119,288.90 points. As of the daily close, it had lost 3,554.05 points from Wednesday's close of 119,196.09 points.

During the day, the index hovered between 117,838.30 points and 119,350.34 points.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 803.2 billion Turkish liras ($132.6 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 5.75 billion Turkish liras ($943.8 million).

On the fourth transaction day of the week, 11 stocks on the index rose, 87 were down, and two were flat compared to Wednesday.

The highest trading volumes were posted by defense giant Aselsan, private lender Garanti, and national flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

Software firm Logo was the best performer, with its shares up 2.8%, while leasing/factoring firm Is Finansal Kiralama dropped the most, losing 11.69%.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,617.60 by market close, up from $1,608.95 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $59.60 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) on Thursday.