By Jeyhun Aliyev
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index started Thursday up 0.06 percent or 52.87 points to open at 90,253.58 points.
The banking and holding sector indices gained 0.24 percent and 0.02 percent, respectively.
The BIST construction index was the best performer at open with 0.73 percent increase, while the wholesale and retail trade sector index performed the worst — down 0.72 percent.
On Wednesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 0.22 percent to close at 90,200.71 points with a trading volume of some 7.48 billion liras ($1.36 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate climbed to 5.5830 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Wednesday's closing rate of 5.5450.
The euro/Turkish lira rate was 6.3460 on Thursday morning, versus 6.2780 at the previous close, while one British pound traded for 7.1910 Turkish liras, versus 7.0870 at Wednesday's close.
The price of Brent oil dropped to $74.67 per barrel as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Thursday, compared to the previous close at $76.07.
One barrel of Brent oil was sold for $66 at the beginning of this year.
