UPDATE - Turkish stocks down 0.97% at daily close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index went down 0.97% to close at 96,072.99 points on Thursday.

After starting the day at 97,227.16 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 942.03 points from Wednesday's close of 97,015.02 points.

The BIST 100 hovered between 96,021.82 points and 97,530.85 points -- 20 stocks on the index rose, 71 fell, and nine were flat compared to the previous close.

Thursday's trading saw a volume of 5.29 billion Turkish liras ($925 million), while the index ended the day with a market value of nearly 636 billion liras ($112 billion).

National flag carrier Turkish Airlines and lenders Garanti Bankasi and Halkbank saw their highest daily trading volumes.

Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding, Garanti Bankasi, and iron and steel producer Eregli were the top listed companies by market value.

Stocks of conglomerate Ittifak Holding (ITTFH) performed the best, rising 5.72%, as shares of IT company Indeks Bilgisayar (INDES) fell the most for the second day in a row, losing 5.77%.

One ounce of gold sold for $1,301.00 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets versus the previous close of $1,304.30.

A barrel of Brent oil sold for $71.32 as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Thursday -- with a day range of $70.85 to $71.69.

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