Borsa Istanbul down at Friday's open

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index opened at 1,398.93 points on Friday, down 0.53%, or 7.46 points, from the previous close.

At Thursday's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was up 1.04% to 1,406.39 points, with a daily trading volume of almost 15.93 billion Turkish liras ($1.79 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 8.8860 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) from 8.8780 at the previous close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also decreased to 10.2910 from 10.3000, while one British pound traded for 11.9980 Turkish liras, up from 11.9480.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $78.06 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT).