Turkey's benchmark stock index rises at open

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index rose by 0.39 percent or 375.54 points to open at 97,192.90 points on Friday.

On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index climbed 1.47 percent to close at 96,817.36 points with a daily trading volume of 9.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.75 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 5.3650 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Thursday's closing rate of 5.3750.

The euro/lira exchange rate stood at 6.1130 versus 6.1360 at the last close. One British pound traded for 6.9600 Turkish liras, as the GBP/TRY rate was 6.9610 by market close on Thursday.

The price of Brent oil increased to $61.88 per barrel as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Friday, versus $61.18 at Thursday's closing.