Turkey's benchmark stock index up at open

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index rose 0.38 percent or 364.01 points to open the day at 96,451.28 points on Tuesday.

At the daily open, all sector indices saw rises, but the BIST telecommunication index gained the most -- up 0.85 percent.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index surged 1.27 percent on Monday to close the day at 96,087.27 points, with a trading volume of 7.6 billion liras ($1.23 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 6.0980 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Monday's closing rate of 6.1260.

The euro/lira rate was 7.0020 on Tuesday morning, versus 7.0340 at the previous close, while one British pound was traded for 7.9940 Turkish liras, down from 8.0100 at Monday's close.

The price of Brent oil was $84.46 per barrel as of 10:30 a.m. local time (0730GMT) Tuesday, starting the day at $83.73, up from around $66 at the beginning of this year.