ISTANBUL

Turkey's benchmark stock index dropped 0.29% or 354.66 points on Thursday to start the day at 122,392.42 points.

At midweek's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index dropped 0.65% to 122,747.08 points with a daily trading volume of 13.9 billion Turkish liras ($2.3 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate rose to 5.9320 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Thursday, compared to Wednesday's closing rate of 5.9210.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate also increased to 6.5750, versus 6.5660, and one British pound was traded for 7.8020 Turkish liras. It was 7.8000 at the previous close.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $62.30 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) on Thursday.