UPDATE - Turkish stocks slip at Thursday's close

BIST 100 index falls nearly 1,600 points from midweek close, USD/TRY exchange rate rises to 5.69

UPDATE WITH MORE DAILY FIGURES

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index ended Thursday down 1.56% to close at 100,338.77 points.

Starting the day at 102,097.20 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index slipped 1,591.3 points from the midweek close at 101,930.07 points.

During Thursday trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 100,030.67 points and 102,142.49 points -- 20 stocks on the index rose, 72 fell, and 8 were flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of nearly 665.4 billion Turkish liras ($117.2 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 8.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.5 billion).

Shares of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Garanti BBVA and state lender Halkbank saw the highest trading volumes on Thursday -- accounting for 40% of the benchmark index's total trade volume.

Stocks of real estate investment trusts firm Alarko Gmyo were the top gainers, rising 6.36%, while cement producer Konya Cimento saw the biggest drop, falling 10.42%.

An ounce of gold sold for $1,498.50 at the daily close in Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets, versus $1,502.30 at the previous close.

The price of Brent oil was $64.53 per barrel as of 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) on Thursday, with a day range of $63.48 to $65.56.