By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL 

Turkey's benchmark stock index rose by 0.34 percent or 306.95 points to open at 91,503.26 points on Friday.

On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose slightly by 0.04 percent to close the day at 91,196.31 points with a daily trading volume of 5.57 billion Turkish liras ($1 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 5.4360 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Thursday's closing rate of 5.4410.

The euro/lira rate stood at 6.2670, versus 6.2660 at the last close. One British pound traded for 6.9500 Turkish liras, as the GBP/TRY rate was 6.9610 by market close on Thursday.

The price of Brent oil increased to $61.60 per barrel as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Friday, versus $60.98 at Thursday's closing.