Borsa Istanbul starts Thursday down

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index opened at 1,104.42 points on Thursday, down 0.24% or 2.69 points from the previous close.

At Wednesday's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was down 0.37% at 1,107.11 points, with a daily trading volume of 11.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.5 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 7.5110 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), up from 7.5070 at the previous close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate dropped to 8.8350 from 8.8890, while one British pound traded for 9.7380 Turkish liras, down from 9.7930.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $41.54 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT).