UPDATE – Turkey's benchmark stock index flat at close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES</p> <p>By Muhammed Ali Gurtas </p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Thursday flat to close at 91,196.31 points. </p> <p>Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 39.43 points or 0.04 percent from the previous close, as it started the day at 91,226.40 points.</p> <p>On Thursday, the BIST 100 continued to stand over the 90,000 threshold, as its daily low and high were 90,694.70 points and 91,845.79 points, respectively.</p> <p>As of daily close, 51 stocks on the index rose, 32 fell, and 17 were flat compared to the previous close.</p> <p>The daily trading volume of the BIST 100 was 5.57 billion liras ($1 billion) while its market value totaled some 592 billion Turkish liras ($107.8 billion).</p> <p>The country's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lenders Garanti Bankasi and Akbank posted the highest daily trade volumes on Thursday — accounting for 39.8 percent of the benchmark index's total trade volume. </p> <p>By market capitalization, Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($6.79 billion), Garanti Bankasi ($6.01 billion) and energy giant Tupras ($5.51 billion) were the top listed companies on the BIST 100 index.</p> <p>Stocks of automotive manufacturer Ford Otosan (FROTO) showed Thursday's best performance — up 7.26 percent — as shares of conglomerate Bera Holding (BERA) suffered the largest decline with a 4.12-percent drop.</p> <p>One U.S. dollar traded for 5.4410 Turkish liras, compared with Wednesday's close of 5.5050. </p> <p>By market close, the euro/lira rate stood at 6.2660, versus 6.3150 at the previous close.</p> <p>The GBP/TRY exchange rate was 6.9610, while one British pound traded for 7.0240 Turkish liras at Wednesday's close. </p> <p>In Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, the price of one ounce of gold was around $1,293 at daily close, up from $1,281 at the previous close.</p> <p>Hovering between $60.44 and $61.42 during the day, a barrel of Brent oil was sold for $60.87 as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Thursday.