By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index fell 0.55 percent or 489.15 points to open at 88,375.86 points on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 2.64 percent to close the day at 88,865.01 points with a daily trading volume of 3.98 billion Turkish liras ($745.6 million).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 5.4920 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Wednesday's closing rate of 5.3830.
The euro/lira rate was 6.2390, versus 6.1220 at the last close. One British pound was exchanged for 6.9010 Turkish liras, as the GBP/TRY was 6.7990 by market close on Wednesday.
The price of Brent oil was around $54.35 per barrel as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Thursday.