Turkish stocks up at Friday opening

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s benchmark stock index opened at 1,138.49 points Friday, rising 11.69 points or 1.04% from the previous close.

At Thursday's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index climbed 0.19% to hit its highest level since July 30, at 1,126.80 points with a daily trading volume of 24.2 billion Turkish liras ($3.3 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 7.2770 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) Friday, down from Thursday's closing rate of 7.3370.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate decreased to 8.6380, versus 8.6850, and one British pound traded for 9.6560 Turkish liras. It was 9.6600 at the previous close.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $44.98 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Friday.