Turkish stocks end Wednesday down

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the day down 0.35% to close at 103,509.22 points on Wednesday.

Starting the day at 103,832.37 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 367.33 points from Tuesday's close at 103,876.56 points.

An ounce of gold sold for $1,486.10 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,463.70 at the previous close. ******

During Wednesday's trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 103,183.99 points and 104,446.17 points -- 49 stocks on the index rose, 45 fell, and six were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of nearly 691 billion Turkish liras ($121 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 8.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.5 billion).

By market capitalization, Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding ($8.38 billion) and private lenders Garanti BBVA ($7.32 billion) and Akbank ($7.19billion) were the top companies on the BIST 100.

Shares of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Garanti BBVA, and state lender HalkBank saw the highest trading volumes on Wednesday.

Stocks of automotive company Dogus Otomotiv (DOAS) showed the top performance -- up 11.50% -- as shares of Ittifak Holding - (ITTFH) did the worst, with a 20% drop.

An ounce of gold sold for $1,488.00 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,495.50 at the previous close.

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The price of Brent oil was $57.80 per barrel as of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) on Monday, with a day range of $57.80 to $59.49.

At the beginning of 2019, a barrel of Brent oil sold for around $53.