By Gokhan Ergocun
ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index soared by 0.87% or 1,609.34 points on Thursday to start the day at 123,930.11 points.
At Wednesday's closing, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index increased by 0.15% to 122,320.77 points with a daily trading volume of 16 billion Turkish liras ($2.7 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 5.9820 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Thursday, compared to the midweek's closing rate of 5.9830.
The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also dropped to 6.5780, versus 6.5880, and one British pound traded for 7.7840 Turkish liras. It was 7.7940 at the previous close.
One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $56.20 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) on Thursday.