Investing.com - Asian markets fell in morning trade on Monday as investor sentiment took a hit amid the slump in Turkish lira on geopolitical developments.
The sell-off in the Turkish lira came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had approved the doubling of metals tariffs against Turkey. The lira plunged as much as 20% against the dollar shortly after the announcement.
In response, Turkey announced on Sunday that it has drafted an economic action plan to ease investor concerns.
"From Monday morning onwards our institutions will take the necessary steps and will share the announcements with the market," Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said, although he did not elaborate on what the steps would be.
In Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component traded 1.7% and 1.2% lower respectively by 10:30PM ET (02:30 GMT). Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was also down 1.8%.
China will release industrial production, fixed-asset investment and retail sales data on Tuesday.
“As well as rising tensions in emerging markets, headlines on the simmering trade conflict keep niggling away at confidence,” said Stewart Richardson, chief investment officer at RMG Wealth Management LLP in London. “So far, the contagion from the worst emerging markets has been contained, but the performance late last week is not encouraging. The risk is that developed market assets begin to buckle and central banks ignore this and continue to tighten because they are already behind the curve.”
South Korea’s KOSPI eased 0.7%. Technology stocks continued to underperform with index heavyweight Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) losing 1.2% in morning trade.
Elsewhere, Singapore’s GDP eased to 3.9% in second quarter from prior three months, compared to the previous estimated 4.1%.
Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6%. Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.9%.