Turkish stocks down at midweek open

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s benchmark stock index opened at 1,847.29 points on Wednesday, down 0.17% or 3.20 points, from the previous close.

The BIST 100 index of the Borsa Istanbul fell 2.46% to close on Tuesday at 1,850.48 points, with a daily trading volume of more than 30.8 billion Turkish liras ($2.7 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 12.0740 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), versus 11.8270 at the previous close.

The euro/lira exchange rate rose to 13.6490 from 13.3790, while one British pound traded for 16.2550 liras, up from 15.9430.

A barrel of Brent crude oil was sold for around $78.79 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT).

Meanwhile, the Turkish Central Bank announced it has decided to provide incentive to deposit and participation fund holders if they convert their gold deposit accounts and participation funds into lira time deposit accounts, in a move to shore up liras' value.