By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

Turkey's stock exchange started Wednesday up 0.18 percent to open at 117,738.99 points.

Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 rose 214.79 points while the banking and holding sectors increased 0.16 and 0.32 percent, respectively.

Among all sector indices, the sports sector index was the best performer, rising 1.17 percent; the transportation sector index was the sole loser, falling 0.11 percent.

On Tuesday, the BIST 100 came to its highest-ever close with an increase of 1.90 percent or 2,191.19 points, reaching 117,524.20 points with 8 billion Turkish liras (approximately $2.12 billion) trade volume.

The U.S. dollar rose to 3.7780 Turkish liras at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Tuesday's closing rate of 3.7590.

The euro-lira rate also increased to 4.5540 from previous day’s close at 4.5320.

The price of Brent oil climbed to $66.55 per barrel as of 9 a.m. local time (0600GMT) Wednesday, compared with $66.44 Tuesday evening.

Turkey's inflation rate increased 0.69 percent in December 2017 and annual consumer inflation rate reached 11.92 percent, Turkish Statistical Institute said on Wednesday.

The country's export statistics will be released later Wednesday by the Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci.