By Tuba Sahin
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's stock exchange started the first trading day of 2019 down 0.31 percent or 284.35 points to open at 90,986.13 points on Wednesday.
On Monday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index closed the day at 91,270.48 points with a daily trading volume of 2.28 billion Turkish lira ($432 million).
The benchmark stock index was closed on Tuesday due to the New Year's Day.
The U.S. dollar hovered around 5.2950 Turkish liras at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Wednesday, compared with Monday's closing rate of 3.2920.
The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 6.0890, compared to Monday’s close at 6.0550
One British pound traded for 6.7770 Turkish liras, as the GBP/TRY rate was 6.7810 by market close on Monday.
The price of Brent oil fell to $53.12 per barrel as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Wednesday, down from the previous closing rate of $54.12.