By Gokhan Ergocun
ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index dropped by 0.38% or 458.61 points on Thursday to start the day at 119,230.86 points.
At Wednesday's closing, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index decreased slightly by 0.09% to 119,689.48 points with a daily trading volume of 10.9 billion Turkish liras ($1.8 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 5.9720 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Thursday, compared to the midweek's closing rate of 5.9600.
The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also increased to 6.5810, versus 6.5550, and one British pound traded for 7.7890 Turkish liras. It was 7.7610 at the previous close.
One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $58.20 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) on Thursday.