UPDATE - Turkish stocks close Thursday flat

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index went up 0.09 percent to close at 103,407.79 points on Thursday.

After starting the day at 103,836.04 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 97.58 points from the previous close.

Peaking at 104,248.31 points, the BIST 100's daily low was 102,534.12 points during Thursday's trading -- 36 stocks on the index rose, 58 fell, and six were flat compared to the previous close.

Daily trade volume of the benchmark index was 8.44 billion Turkish liras ($1.55 billion), as it closed the day with a market value of around 679 billion Turkish liras ($124 billion).

By market capitalization, the leading companies of the BIST 100 were Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding, private lender Garanti Bankasi, and energy company Tupras.

The highest trading volumes were posted by Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Garanti Bankasi, iron and steel producer Kardemir.

Shares of conglomerate Ittifak Holding (ITTFH) performed the best on Thursday -- up 5.68 percent -- and stocks of of investment trust Global Yatirim Holding (GLYHO) showed the largest decline, falling 3.55 percent.

One ounce of gold was sold for $1,320.00 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,305.50 at the close on Wednesday.

With a day range of $67.94 to $68.69, the price of Brent oil was around $68.23 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Thursday.

At the beginning of 2019, the price of Brent oil was around $53 per barrel.