By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index started Friday down 0.30% or 258.96 points to open at 86,944.89 points.
On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 0.20% to close at 87,203.85 points with a daily trading volume of six billion Turkish liras ($996.7 million).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 6.0790 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Friday, up from 6.0190 at Thursday's close.
The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate was 6.8000, versus 6.7450, and one British pound traded for 7.7900 Turkish liras, compared to the last close at 7.7190.
One barrel of Brent oil was sold for $72.61 as of 10.15 a.m. local time (0715GMT) on Friday.