UPDATE - Turkish stocks down at closing session

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the day at 89,085.13 points on Wednesday, down 0.62% from the previous close.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index started the day at 88,285.81 points. As of the daily close, it dropped 558.58 points from Tuesday's close of 89,643.71 points.

During midweek trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 87,888.61 points and 90,399.16 points -- 38 stocks on the index rose, 60 fell and two were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of nearly 623.1 billion Turkish liras ($94.9 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 10.6 billion Turkish liras ($1.6 billion).

By market capitalization, Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($5 billion), private lender Garanti BBVA ($4.9 billion) and a major Turkish retail sale chain BIM Birlesik Magazalar ($4.7 billion) were the top companies of BIST 100.

Shares of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, defense company Aselsan and polyester producer Sasa posted the highest trading volumes -- accounting for around 21% of the benchmark index's total trade volume.

Shares of petrochemical company Petkim performed the best, rising 9.90%, as stocks of Sasa did the worst with a 9.92% drop.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,599.00 by market close, down from $1,600.55 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $25.36 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) on Wednesday.