Turkish stocks start Thursday up 0.85%

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index started Thursday up 0.85% or 842.71 points to open at 99,428.00 points.

On Wednesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index surged 1.83% to close the day at 98,585.29 points with a daily trading volume of 8 billion Turkish liras ($1.4 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.6730 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Thursday, down from 5.7210 at midweek close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 6.4060, versus 6.4350, and one British pound traded for 7.1230 Turkish liras, compared to 7.1570.

One barrel of Brent oil sold for $67.42 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) on Thursday.