Borsa Istanbul down at close

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

- Turkey's benchmark stock index slipped by 3.46 percent to 87,143.21 points with a trading volume of around 8.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.45 billion) in the closing session on Thursday.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index ended the day with a 3,119.74-point decrease from Wednesday's close of 90,262.95 points, while it opened the day at 91,492.77 points.

The USD/TRY exchange rate declined to 5.7190 as of 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) Thursday, compared with 6.0690 at Wednesday's close.

The euro/lira exchange rate also fell to 6.5270 by market close, versus 6.8710 at the previous close, and one British pound traded for 7.2350 Turkish liras, compared with 7.5990 at Wednesday's close.

The price of Brent oil rose to $70.80 per barrel as of 6 p.m. (1500GMT) Thursday, from $70.76 at Wednesday's close.