UPDATE - Turkey's Borsa Istanbul up %0.81 at close

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index rose 0.81% to 119,031.16 points at close on Thursday.

After starting the day at 118,714.00 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index increased by 951.26 points from Wednesday's close of 118,079.91 points.

During the day, the index hovered between 118,585.42 and 119,446.93 points.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was 868 billion Turkish liras ($126 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 20.2 billion Turkish liras ($3 billion).

On the fourth transaction day of the week, 49 stocks on the index rose, four were down and the remaining flat compared to Wednesday.

The highest trading volumes were posted by real investment trust firm Emlak Konut, defense giant Aselsan and country's flagship Turkish Airlines.

Alkim Kimya, which produces chemical materials, was the best performer, with its shares up 9.97%, while stocks of food company Tat Gida dropped the most, losing 4.50%.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,881.60 by market close, up from $1,859.35 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $43.88 per barrel as of 6.30 p.m. local time (1530GMT) on Thursday.