UPDATE - Turkish stocks slightly down at Wednesday close

UPDATES WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Wednesday decreasing 0.21% to close at 1,392.45 points.

After starting the day at 1,404.25 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 2.95 points from 1,395.40 points at Tuesday's close.

On Wednesday, the BIST 100 hovered between 1,384.98 and 1,409.78 points -- 38 stocks on the index rose, 58 fell and four were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of some 1.025 trillion Turkish liras ($131 billion), the benchmark index posted daily trading volume of 33.8 billion Turkish liras ($4.32 billion).

Shares of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti BBVA and glass manufacturer Sisecam saw the highest trading volumes.

Tractor producer Tumosan was the best performer, with its shares up 9.94%, while stocks of Selcuk Ecza Deposu, a pharmaceutical supplier, dropped the most, losing 5.16%.

One ounce of gold sold for $1,864.50 by market close, up from $1,846.60, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent oil was around $50.40 per barrel as of 6.15 p.m. local time (1515GMT) on Wednesday.