ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index went up 0.40%, or 441.39 points, to start Friday at 111,040.82 points.

On Thursday's close, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose slightly by 0.02% to 110,599.43 points with a daily trading volume of 6.8 billion Turkish liras (some $1.2 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate stood at 5.9350 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Friday, compared to 5.9389 at Thursday's close.

The euro/Turkish lira exchange rate was at 6.6000, versus 6.6020, and one British pound traded for 7.7430 Turkish liras, while it was 7.7690 at the previous close.

One barrel of Brent