UPDATE - Turkish stocks up 1.40% at close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Thursday up 1.40% to close at 112,494.62 points.

Starting the day at 111,422.04 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 1,554.66 points from 110,939.96 points at the midweek close.

During Thursday's trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 111,116.86 points and 112,676.16 points -- 61 stocks on the index rose, 31 fell, and eight were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of nearly 807.3 billion Turkish liras ($118.1 billion), the benchmark index posted a record high daily trading volume of 20.2 billion Turkish liras ($2.95 billion).

Shares of iron/steel producer Kardemir, telecommunication giant Turkcell, and defense company Aselsan saw the highest trading volumes during the day.

Stocks of Turkcell were the top gainer with a 9.96% rise as the Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF) announced early Thursday that it has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in the company, while shares of Deva, a pharmaceutical company, dropped the most, falling 5.38%.

One ounce of gold sold for $1,722.00 by market close, up from $1,718.20 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent oil was $41.20 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Thursday, with a daily range of $40.05 to $41.38.

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