Turkey's Borsa Istanbul looking down at Monday open

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index opened at 1,538.50 points on Monday, dropping 0.14% or 2.11 points from the previous close.

At Friday's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was up at 1,540.61 points, with a daily trading volume of 37.6 billion Turkish liras ($5.1 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 7.4600 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), versus 7.3280 at the previous close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also increased to 9.0900 from 8.9970, while one British pound traded for 10.0800 Turkish liras, up from 10.0110.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $55.1 as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT).