UPDATE - Turkish stocks down at close

UPDATE WITH MORE DETAILS

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the day down 0.05% to close at 97,792.23 points on Monday.

After starting the day at 98,419.82 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 52.97 points from Friday's close at 97,845.20 points.

Closing the day with a market value of nearly 693 billion Turkish liras ($98 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 10.3 billion Turkish liras ($1.5 billion).

During Monday's trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 97,792.23, points and 98,641.05 points -- 31 stocks on the index rose, 22 fell, and the remaining were flat compared to the previous close.

Shares of iron/steel producer Kardemir, private lender Garanti BBVA and leasing company Is Finans Kiralama saw the highest trading volumes. Stocks of Deva, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, were the top gainer with a 10% rise, while shares of polyester producer Sasa dropped the most, falling 4.40%.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,701.00 by market close, up from $1,720.00 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent oil was $30.36 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Monday.

At the beginning of 2020, a barrel of Brent oil sold for around $58.