Turkish stocks rise 2.09% at Friday's open

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s benchmark stock index opened at 2,323.16 points on Friday, up by 47.61 points, or 2.09%, from the previous close, seeing a new record high.

Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index on Thursday closed at 2,278.55 points, with a daily trading volume of approximately 59.8 billion Turkish liras ($3.9 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 15.9960 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), from 15.5770 at the previous close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also spiked to 18.1580 from 17.6780, while one British pound traded for 21.3200 Turkish liras, up from 20.8550.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $74.41 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT).

Meanwhile, the Turkish Central Bank on Thursday cut its benchmark one-week repo rate by 100 basis points from 15% to 14% in line with market expectations.

With the latest cut, the monetary authority has lowered the key rate by 500 basis points since September.