By Can Erozden

ANKARA

Turkey's benchmark stock index the BIST 100 fell 0.15 percent or 177.88 points to open at 116,138.10 points on Thursday.

The banking and holding sectors were down 0.33 and 0.03 percent, respectively.

Among all sector indices, electricity performed the best, gaining 1.08 percent, while the telecommunication sector index saw the biggest drop, down 0.86 percent.

The U.S. dollar slightly went up to 3.7970 Turkish liras at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT), compared with Wednesday's closing rate of 3.7920.

The euro-lira rate was down to 4.6640 from the previous day’s close of 4.6750.

The price of Brent oil was down slightly to $65.02 per barrel as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) Thursday, compared with $65.05 at Wednesday's close.