Turkey's Borsa Istanbul looking up at open

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index started the last day of the week at 99,201.12 points, up 0.82%, or 802.32 points.

On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 0.18% to close the day at 98,398.81 points, with a daily trading volume of 12.1 billion Turkish liras ($1.7 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 7.1630 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Friday, compared to 7.1920 at Thursday's close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 7.7680, versus 7.7450, and one British pound traded for 8.8990 Turkish liras, versus 8.8500 at the previous close.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $30.58 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT).

Turkey has blocked three foreign banks – BNP Paribas, Citibank, and UBS – from doing foreign exchange transactions with the Turkish lira, the nation’s banking watchdog announced on Thursday.

After the regulator’s ban, the Turkish lira, which hit a record low against the dollar on Thursday, rebounded.