By Tuba Sahin
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index started Thursday at 101,812.27 points with a daily increase of 0.66% or 668.53 points.
On Wednesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index climbed 0.62% to close the day at 101,143.742 points with a daily trading volume of 7.5 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate dropped to 5.7460 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Thursday, compared to 5.7660 at Wednesday's close.
The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 6.3630, versus 6.3900, and one British pound traded for 7.3970 Turkish liras, versus 7.4420 at the previous close.
One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $61.70 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT).