Turkey's benchmark stock index flat at open

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index fell by 0.08 percent or 79.65 points to start the midweek trading day at 94,648.02 points.

Among all sector indices, the BIST leasing factoring index showed the best opening -- up 1.50 percent -- while the BIST whole sale and retail trade index posted the worst performance with a 0.75-percent fall.

On Tuesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 1.27 percent to close the day at 94,727.67 points with a trading volume of 7.4 billion liras ($1.4 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.3860 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Tuesday's closing rate of 5.3530.

The euro/lira rate was 6.1680, versus 6.1170 at the previous close. One British pound was traded for 7.0760 Turkish liras, as the GBP/TRY was 7.0060 at Tuesday's close.

The price of Brent oil was $71.75 per barrel as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Wednesday, up from around $66 at the beginning of this year.