Turkish stocks open Tuesday down

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index started Tuesday down 0.50 percent or 466.20 points to open at 93,635.07 points.

On Monday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index surged 0.34 percent to close at 94,101.28 points with a daily trading volume of 8.25 billion Turkish liras ($1.47 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 5.5630 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) Tuesday, compared to 5.5250 at the last close.

The euro/Turkish lira rate was 6.2440, versus 6.2260 at Monday's close, and one British pound was exchanged for 7.3240 Turkish liras, compared to 7.2780.

One barrel of Brent oil was sold for $69.14 as of 10.30 a.m. local time (0730GMT) Tuesday.