Turkish stocks looking down at Friday's open

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's benchmark stock index opened at 1,801.30 points on Friday, down by 0.99%, or 17.92 points, from the previous close.

At Thursday's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index went up by 0.38% to hit another record closing of 1,819.23 points, with a daily trading volume of more than 31.8 billion Turkish liras ($2.65 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 12.1420 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) from 11.9690 at the previous close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also climbed to 13.6170 from 13.4250, while one British pound traded for 16.1730 Turkish liras, up from 15.9700.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $80.14 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT).

The Turkish banking sector is "very strong," said the Central Bank governor on Thursday after meeting with public and private banking officials and bank CEOs.

"The sector, central bank and BDDK are very much in harmony and in strong communication," he added.

The Turkish banking sector is also one of the most successful ones in the world, Sahap Kavcioglu told a group journalists after the meeting in Istanbul, Turkey’s commercial capital.

Kavcioglu’s remarks came amid fluctuating foreign exchange rates in the wake of interest rate cuts by the Central Bank.