Turkish stocks up at Thursday open

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s benchmark stock index opened at 1,355.07 points on Thursday, rising by 0.35% or 4.75 points from the previous close.

At Wednesday’s close, Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index was up 0.78% to hit an all-time high of 1,350.32 points, with a daily trading volume of 37 billion Turkish liras ($4.7 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 7.8370 as of 9:30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), versus 7.7980 on Wednesday.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also increased to 9.4830 from 9.4480, while one British pound traded for 10.4980 Turkish liras, down from 10.5180 at Wednesday’s close.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $48.92 as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT).

Analysts said investors will follow Turkey’s September unemployment figures and the European Central Bank’s interest rates decision to be announced on Thursday.