By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index started the midweek trading day up 0.63 percent or 593.45 points to open at 95,480.32 points.

On the third transaction day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices gained 1.16 and 0.61 percent, respectively.

While whole sector indices started the day on rise, the BIST banking index was the best performer at open.

On Tuesday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 0.57 percent to close at 94,886.87 points with a trading volume of some 6.44 billion Turkish liras (around $1 billion), hovering between 94,538.06 points and 95,374.88 points during the sessions.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 6.3390 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Tuesday's closing rate of 6.3740.

The euro/lira rate dropped to 7.4110 on Wednesday morning, versus 7.4590 at the previous close, while one British pound was traded for 8.3610 Turkish liras, down from 8.4100 at Tuesday's close.

The price of Brent oil was $79.13 per barrel as of 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Wednesday, starting the day at $78.88, while it was around $66 at the beginning of this year.