By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index started Wednesday down 0.59 percent or 549.98 points to open at 93,316.96 points.
The banking and holding sector indices fell 1.14 and 0.59 percent, respectively. The BIST banking index was the worst performer at open while the retail and wholesale trade sector index was the top gainer with a 0.57 percent increase.
On Tuesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 0.85 percent to close at 93,866.94 points with a trading volume of some 7.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.13 billion), hovering between 90,991.60 points and 93,974.61 points during the sessions.
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 6.3300 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Tuesday's closing rate of 6.2320.
The euro/lira rate rose to 7.3880 on Wednesday morning, versus 7.3050 at the previous close, while one British pound was traded for 8.1530 Turkish liras, up from 8.0470 at Tuesday's close.
The price of Brent oil was $68.47 per barrel as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Wednesday, starting the day at $68.55, while it was around $66 at the beginning of this year.
