Syria showdown sends Turkish lira to new record lows

Recent statements by U.S. President Donald Trump signaling a missile strike targeting the Assad regime after chemical attack allegations in Syria's Douma have taken its toll on the Turkish lira, which has been performing poorly in the recent weeks and since the beginning of the year in general.

Following Trump's tweet, the U.S. dollar hit 4.1938 against the Turkish lira from 4.14, setting a new record high with a daily gain of 1.85 percent. The euro also climbed to 5.1940.

This made the lira the second worst performing currency against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday after the Russian ruble fell nearly 3 percent.

The Borsa Istanbul (BIST) 100 Index also fell by 4 percent to 106,624 points from an earlier 111,000 points. The index later recovered to 107,700 points, with daily losses standing 2.7 percent.

The compound interest rate for the benchmark two-year treasury bonds jumped to a record high of 14.6 percent, with the compound rate for 10-year bonds rising to 13.43 percent.

The lira had also been negatively affected by the recent global market volatility as the U.S. and China exchanged tariff measures and Washington slapped sanctions on Russia.

Turkey's closely-watched current account deficit came in at $4.152 billion in February according to data released Wednesday, below a forecast of $4.2 billion in a Reuters poll, but sharply wider than the $2.566 billion in February last year.

Turkey's sovereign dollar bonds also weakened across the curve with the May 2040 and January 2041 issues at their lowest since January 2017.

In late March, the U.S. imposed higher import duties on steel and aluminum, temporarily excluding Argentina, Australia, Brazil, South Korea and European Union states, but not Turkey.

The Turkish lira has also struggled in recent months on worrying inflation and current account figures. However, the announcement of a higher-than-forecasted growth rate — 7.4 percent growth in 2017 — boosted the lira to 3.94 against the dollar in late March, after it had depreciated 6 percent since the beginning of the month.