ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark index started the day with a 320.05-point increase to open at 89,460.06 on Thursday.
In the first transactions of the day, the BIST 100 index rose by 0.16 percent while the banking sector index advanced by 0.50 percent, maintaining its upward trend.
At Wednesday's closing session, the benchmark index was up 2.11 percent -- increasing 1,841.92 points -- to 89,320.25 points with a total trading volume of 5 billion Turkish liras (more than $1.36 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate increased to 3.6670 at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Thursday, compared with 3.6630 at Wednesday's close.
Gold held at $1,244.40 an ounce.