By Gokhan Ergocun
ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index rose by 0.31 percent or 312.74 points to open at 100,453.78 points on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose by 0.47 percent to close the day at 100,141.04 points with a daily trading volume of 8.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.58 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 5.2880 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Wednesday's closing rate of 5.3120.
The euro/Turkish lira rate also dropped to 6.0320, versus 6.0360 at the last close. One British pound traded for 6.9300 Turkish liras, as the GBP/TRY rate was 6.9449 by market close on Wednesday.
The price of Brent oil decreased to around $60.80 per barrel as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Thursday, versus $61.55 at the previous close.