UPDATE - Turkish stocks down 0.44 pct at close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Tuesday down 0.44 percent to close at 103,730.59 points.

Starting the day at 103,933.61 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 462.74 points from the previous close.

The BIST 100's daily peak and low were 104,832.15 points and 103,459.76 points, respectively. During Tuesday's trading, 37 stocks on the index rose, 52 fell, and 11 were flat compared to the previous close.

The benchmark index posted a 9.49 billion Turkish liras ($1.76 billion) daily trading volume and closed the day with a market value of around 681 billion Turkish liras ($127 billion).

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

Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Garanti Bankasi, and leading petrochemicals producer Petkim posted the highest trade volumes on Tuesday.

Shares of real estate investment trust Ihlas Gayrimenkul (IHLGM) enjoyed the highest increase, up 15.96 percent, and stocks of conglomerate Tekfen Holding (TKFEN) -- involved in oil, power generation, construction and infrastructure -- dropped the most, falling 4.19 percent.

One ounce of gold was sold for $1,286.50 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,287.60 at the previous close.

With a day range of $65.05 to $66.22, the price of Brent oil was around $65.72 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Tuesday.

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