By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index surged 0.75 percent or 693.89 points to open at 93,521.18 points on Friday.

On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 1.22 percent to close the day at 92,827.29 points with a daily trading volume of 5.26 billion Turkish liras ($979.4 million).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 5.3330 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Thursday's closing rate of 5.3690.

The euro/lira rate was 6.0690, versus 6.1130 at the last close. One British pound was exchanged for 6.8270 Turkish liras, as the GBP/TRY was 6.7970 by market close on Thursday.

The price of Brent oil was around $59.36 per barrel as of 9.50 a.m. local time (0650GMT) Friday.