By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index started Thursday down 1.35 percent or 1,312.21 points to open at 95,661.64 points.
The banking and holding sector indices fell 2.02 and 1.45 percent, respectively. The food and beverage sector index was the sole index to gain at the open — up 0.45 percent — while the BIST transportation index saw the worst opening with a 2.55 percent decline.
On Wednesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 0.85 percent to close at 96,973.85 points with a trading volume of some 7.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.46 billion), hovering between 95,969.57 points and 97,260.43 points during the sessions.
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.3940 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Wednesday's closing rate of 5.2840.
The euro/lira rate rose to 6.2710 on Thursday morning, versus 6.1270 at the previous close, while one British pound was traded for 6.9620 Turkish liras, up from 6.8060 at Wednesday's close.
The price of Brent oil was $72.37 per barrel as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Thursday, starting the day at $72.25, while it was around $66 at the beginning of this year.
