Borsa Istanbul down at open

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index started the day with a 157.85-point decrease to open at 100,032.47 points on Friday.

On the last transaction day of the week, the BIST 100 index fell 0.16 percent.

The banking and holding indices declined by 0.21 percent and 0.22 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the chemical/oil/plastic sector index was the best performer with a 0.37 percent rise, while the telecommunication sector index started the day with the biggest decline, falling by 0.47 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 3.5250 at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) Friday, compared with 3.5210 at Thursday’s close.

The BIST 100 was down 427.38 points or 0.42 percent to close at 100,190.32 points on Thursday, with a total trading volume of 4.2 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.19 billion).