UPDATE - Turkish stocks down at Tuesday close

UPDATE WITH MORE FIGURES

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s benchmark stock index closed at 1,259.72 points, down by 2.57%, on Tuesday.

Starting the day at 1,291.65 points, Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index lost 33.27 points over Monday’s close of 1,292.99 points.

On Tuesday, the BIST 100 hovered between 1,259.69 and 1,293.01 points -- 18 stocks on the index rose, 80 fell and two were flat compared to the previous close.

The total market value of the BIST 100 was around 928 billion Turkish liras ($121 billion) by market close, with a daily trading volume of 27.5 billion Turkish liras ($3.56 billion).

The highest trading volumes were posted by private lender Garanti, national flag carrier Turkish Airlines and iron/steel producer Kardemir.

Stocks of food firm Kerevitas was the best performer with its shares up 9.93%, while stocks of automotive company Dogus Otomotiv dropped the most, losing 9.96%.

The price of one ounce of gold was $1,888.75 by market close, up from $1,878.40 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was $43.55 per barrel as of 6:15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) on Tuesday.