ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index closed the day at 1,135.55 points on Wednesday, falling 1.49% from the previous close.

After starting the day at 1,156.04 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index slipped 17.15 points from 1,152.70 points at Tuesday's close.

On Wednesday the BIST 100 hovered between 1,120.96 and 1,159.74 points -- 40 stocks on the index rose, 59 fell, and one was flat compared to the previous close.

Closing the day with a market value of some 833 billion Turkish liras ($121 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 23.9 billion Turkish liras ($3.4 billion).

Shares of defense electronics company Aselsan, insurance company Gunes Sigorta and private lender Garanti BBVA posted the highest trading volumes.

Stocks of Deva, a pharmaceutical company, did the best, rising 9.91%, while shares of Ege Endustri, which manufactures components for the automotive industry, did the worst, losing 8.03%.

One ounce of gold sold for $1,962.50 by market close, up from $1,930.00 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $43.93 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) on Wednesday, with a day range of $43.55 to $44.21.

At the beginning of this year, a barrel of Brent oil sold for around $58.