Turkey's benchmark stock index down at open

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index fell 0.55 percent or 5164.02 points to open the day at 93,924.67 points on Thursday.

Among all sector indices, the BIST construction index was the only sector opened day with an increase -- up 0.05 percent -- while the BIST mining index showed the worst opening performance with a 1.25 percent fall.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index went down 2.37 percent to 94,440.69 points at Wednesday's close with a trading volume of 8.06 billion liras ($1.32 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 6.0230 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with midweek's closing rate of 6.0980.

The euro/lira rate was 6.9660 on Thursday morning, versus 6.9580 at the previous close, while one British pound was traded for 7.9760 Turkish liras -- no change compared with Wednesday's close.

The price of Brent oil was $82.16 per barrel as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT), starting the day at $81.37, up from around $66 at the beginning of this year.