Turkish lira weakens, dollars hoarded ahead of elections

ISTANBUL: Turkey's lira weakened on Tuesday as Turks hoarded dollars in anticipation of a turbulent election cycle and as the death of a 15-year-old boy injured in anti-government protests last summer raised fears of further unrest.

Tensions were already running high in Turkey after a string of leaked voice recordings purporting to reveal government corruption. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says the recordings are "fabricated" and aimed at unseating him.

The lira slipped to 2.2281 against the dollar by 1542 GMT from 2.2200 late on Monday. The 10-year benchmark bond yield rose to 10.98 percent on Tuesday from 10.9 percent late on Monday.

After two days of losses, the main Istanbul share index was up 0.53 percent at 63,065.64 points, outperforming the wider emerging markets index, up 0.13 percent.