Turkey's Borsa Istanbul closes day down

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Thursday down 1.30% to close at 94,179.37 points.

After starting the day at 95,729.80 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index fell 1,236.2 points from 95,415.57 points at Tuesday's close.

The stock exchange market was closed on Wednesday for May 1 International Labor Day, an official holiday in Turkey.

Peaking at 96,050.48 points, the BIST 100's daily low was 93,919.69 points during Thursday's trading -- 14 stocks on the index rose and 86 fell compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of some 623.8 billion Turkish liras ($104.7 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 5 billion Turkish liras ($839.5 million).

Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding, private lender Garanti BBVA, and iron and steel producer Eregli Demir Celik were the BIST 100's leading companies by market capitalization.

Stocks of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Garanti BBVA and prominent Turkish sports club Galatasaray posted the highest trading volumes on Thursday.

Shares of Turkish sports club Fenerbahce saw the highest increase -- up 6% -- while stocks of another major Turkish sports club Besiktas saw the biggest drop, falling 12.40%.

One ounce of gold was sold for $1.270,00 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus previous close of $1.283,35.

The price of Brent oil was $70.36 per barrel as of 6.00 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Thursday -- with a day range of $70.36 to $72.22.

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