UPDATE - Turkey's benchmark stock index flat at close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Thursday flat to close at 91,196.31 points.

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.

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.

As of daily close, 51 stocks on the index rose, 32 fell, and 17 were flat compared to the previous close.

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).

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.

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.

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.

One U.S. dollar traded for 5.4410 Turkish liras, compared with Wednesday's close of 5.5050.

By market close, the euro/lira rate stood at 6.2660, versus 6.3150 at the previous close.

The GBP/TRY exchange rate was 6.9610, while one British pound traded for 7.0240 Turkish liras at Wednesday's close.

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.

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.