Turkey's Borsa Istanbul up nearly 1 pct at open

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA

Turkey's stock exchange rose by 0.95 percent, or 900.63 points, to open at 95,319.78 points on Friday.

On the last transaction day of the week, the banking and holding sector indices gained 1.52 percent and 0.92 percent, respectively.

While all sector indices started the day on the rise, the BIST banking index was the top gainer.

On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 closed at 94,419.15, up 2.38 percent, or 2,191.78 points, with a trading volume of 10 billion Turkish liras ($1.62 billion).

The USD/TRY exchange fell to 6.0470 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Friday, compared to 6.1590 at the previous close.

The EURO/TRY exchange decreased to 7.0810 by market open, versus 7.2180 at the previous close, while and one British pound traded for 7.9555 Turkish liras -- from 8.1190 on Thursday's close.

The price of Brent oil stood at $78.34 per barrel as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Friday, compared to $78.36 on Thursday, while it was around $66 at the beginning of this year.