Turkish shares open lower

ANKARA (AA) - Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 share index fell by 0.23 percent at the opening of Friday’s session.

The benchmark index dropped 179.80 points to open at 77,663.68.

The banking sector index declined 0.34 percent and the holding index dropped by 0.31 percent. Among all sector indexes, the mining sector showed the greatest jump -- 2.32 percent.

On Thursday, the market was up 0.26 percent to 77,843.49 points at the close of trading. Other stock exchanges saw losses following the European Central Bank’s announcement of unchanged interest rates and quantitative easing measures.

Friday’s market is expected to be buoyant following the announcement earlier that Turkey’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 3.1 percent in the second quarter.

The exchange rates for the U.S. dollar and the euro were 2.9535 and 3.3320 Turkish lira, respectively, in Istanbul.