UPDATE - Turkish stocks flat at midweek close

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Gokhan Ergocun and Tuba Sahin

ISTANBUL / ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s benchmark stock index ended Wednesday at 1,531.05 points, up 0.15% compared to the previous close.

Starting the day at 1,538.80 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 2.23 points from 1,528.82 points at Tuesday's close.

During the day, the index hovered between 1,526.54 and 1,553.96 points – 50 stocks on the index rose, 47 fell, and three were flat compared to Tuesday’s close.

The total market value of the BIST 100 index was around 1.16 trillion Turkish liras ($159.2 billion) by the close, with a daily trading volume of 31.23 billion Turkish liras ($4.25 billion).

Stocks of IT company Indeks Bilgisayar climbed the most, up 10%, while the sharpest drop of 3.48% was seen in shares of automotive firm Ford Otosan.

The highest trading volumes were posted by national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, chemical giant Petkim, and private lender Garanti.

One ounce of gold sold for $1,729.30 by market close, down from $1,735,00, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent oil was around $63.66 per barrel as of 6:10 p.m. local time (1510GMT) on Wednesday.