Turkish stocks up at open

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index started the day with a 195.58-point increase to open at 97,912.10 points on Thursday.

On the fourth transaction day of the week, the BIST 100 index rose 0.30 percent.

The banking and holding sector indices climbed 0.21 percent and 0.24 percent, respectively.

Among all sectors, the mining index was the best performer with a 1.24-percent rise, while the food and beverage sector index started the day with the biggest decline, falling by 0.25 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 3.5420 at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) Thursday, compared with 3.5320 at Wednesday’s close.

The BIST 100 was down 715.02 points or 0.73 percent to reach 97,616.52 points at the close on Wednesday, with a total trading volume of 5.2 billion Turkish liras ( $1.47 billion).

Turkish Statistical Institute, TurkStat announced on Wednesday that Turkey's calendar-adjusted industrial production rose by 6.7 percent in April 2017 compared with the same month last year.

Turkey's industrial output is deemed a vital indicator for the economy as it is seen as a preliminary gauge for GDP growth.