ISTANBUL

Turkey's benchmark stock index rose 0.31% or 294.03 points to start Friday at 95,688.27 points.

On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index decreased 0.13% to close the day at 95,394.24 points with a daily trading volume of 6.6 billion Turkish liras ($1.14 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 5.7670 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Friday compared to 5.7660 at Thursday's close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate dropped to 6.3850, versus 6.3990, and one British pound traded for 7.0630 Turkish liras, while it was 7.0750 at the previous close.

One barrel of Brent crude oil sold for around $60.20 as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) on Friday.