Investing.com - Asian markets were mostly lower in morning trade on Wednesday as recent worries over Turkey’s currency crisis continued to affect investor sentiment.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Tuesday to boycott iPhones. Erdogan said the nation would stop buying iPhone and other American electronics, condemning the "explicit economic attack" against his country.
Meanwhile, the Turkish lira rebounded from a record low touched earlier this week after Turkey's Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said the country would protect the currency, and that he believed it would strengthen.
The "rebound in the lira gave European banks and other emerging markets some respite. However, it is fair to say that the saga is not over," David Plank, head of Australian economics at ANZ, said in a note.
"The root cause of Turkey's problems — a very large external deficit denominated in foreign currency – remains unaddressed by authorities ... Investors will remain wary of possible contagion to the European banking system and will be keeping an eye on other countries with high levels of foreign-currency debt," he added.
The Turkish lira lost about 25% of its value since last week after U.S. President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum imports.
In Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite and the SZSE Component both slid 0.8% by 10:00PM ET (02:00 GMT), while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 1.1%. Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) is likely to be in focus as it is set to report earnings later in the day. The company has shed more than $150 billion in market value since the beginning of 2018, Bloomberg reported, adding that $15 billion has disappeared on Tuesday alone following news that the company has to remove “Monster Hunter: World” from its PC downloads service due to regulation concerns, just days after its debut.
Elsewhere, Nikkei 225 traded 0.6% lower while miners, utilities and shipping stocks recorded gains. Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.2%. Markets in South Korea and India are closed on Wednesday for holidays.