By Tuba Sahin
ANKARA (AA) -Turkey's benchmark stock index rose 0.66% or 662.07 points, to start Thursday at 100,447.23 points.
On Wednesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index surged 1.94% to close the day at 99,785.16 points with a daily trading volume 8 billion Turkish liras ($1.4 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.7540 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Thursday, compared to 5.7570 at Wednesday's close.
The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 6.4130, versus 6.4060, and one British pound traded for 7.4530 Turkish liras, while it stood at 7.4380 at the previous close.
One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around 60.95 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) on Thursday.
Investors will follow the Turkish Central Bank's decision on interest rates to be announced after its Monetary Policy Committee Meeting due on Thursday internally, plus Mario Draghi's last speech at the helm of the European Central Bank externally.