UPDATE - Turkey's Borsa Istanbul down at midweek close

UPDATES WITH MORE FIGURES

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Wednesday at 1,562.11 points, down 0.53%.

Starting the day at 1,575.17 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index lost 8.31 points from 1,570.42 points at Tuesday's close.

During the day, the index hovered between 1,562.11 and 1,589.47 points – 20 stocks on the index rose, while 80 fell compared to the previous close.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 1.2 trillion Turkish liras ($160 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 24.9 billion Turkish liras (nearly $3.3 billion).

The highest trading volumes were posted by flagship carrier Turkish Airlines, glass producer Sisecam and private lender Garanti BBVA.

Auto firm Ford Otosan was the best performer, with its shares up 9.98%, while stocks of Borusan Mannesmann, manufacturer of welded steel and plastic pipes dropped the most, 5.20%.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,732.00 by market close, down from $1,733.90 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $67.42 per barrel as of 6:15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) on Wednesday.