Borsa Istanbul flat at opening session

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index opened the day at 1,409.76 points on Thursday, increasing slightly by 0.04% or 0.57 points from the previous close.

At midweek's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was up 2.24% at 1,409.19 points, with a daily trading volume of 16.64 billion Turkish liras ($2.06 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate dropped to 8.0700 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Thursday, from 8.0938 at the previous close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 9.6800, versus 9.6846, while one British pound traded for 11.1200 Turkish liras, down from 11.1613 at Wednesday's close.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $66.80 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT).