By Tuba Sahin
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's benchmark stock index fell by 0.74%, or 636.33 points on Thursday to start the day at 84,940.28 points.
At Wednesday's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was down 1.38% at 85,576.61 points, with a daily trading volume of 2.9 billion Turkish liras ($444 million).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 6.5030 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Thursday, versus 6.4600 at the previous close.
The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also increased to 7.1120, compared to 7.0510, and one British pound traded for 7.5360 Turkish liras. It was 7.6490 at the midweek's close.
One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $26.55 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) on Thursday.