By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index started the midweek trading day up 0.04 percent or 43.77 points to open at 98,204.51 points.

On the third transaction day of the week, the banking sector index gained 0.27 percent, while the holding sector index dropped 0.20 percent.

Among whole sector indices, the BIST wholesale and trade index was the best performer at open, up 0.72 percent, while the BIST investment trusts index fell the most, down 0.57 percent.

On Tuesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index was down 0.38 percent to close at 98,160.73 points with a trading volume of some 7.5 billion Turkish liras (around $1.23 billion), hovering between 97,373.76 points and 98,713.72 points during the sessions.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 5.9890 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Tuesday's closing rate of 6.0010.

The euro/lira rate rose to 6.9380 on Wednesday morning, versus 6.9270 at the previous close, while one British pound was traded for 7.8040 Turkish liras, slightly up from 7.7990 at Tuesday's close. 

The price of Brent oil was $85.04 per barrel as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Wednesday, starting the day at $84.65, while it was around $66 at the beginning of this year.