Turkish lira falls 1 pct ahead of pre-Fed heat

A rise in U.S. Treasury yieldsweighed on emerging assets Wednesday, with the Turkish lira shrugging off central bank pledges for more monetary tighteningto slump one percent against the dollar.

Investors in most markets have retreated to the sidelines before Friday's U.S. jobs data which may offer clues as to thepace of monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve, though arate rise next week has been more or less priced in. However10-year Treasury yields inched to six-week highs.

The lira has slipped almost 5 percent in the past 10 days as the likelihood rose of a Fed move this month and did notreceive any support from governor Murat Cetinkaya who signalled more monetary tightening was on the way if needed.

Simon Quijano-Evans, EM strategist at Legal & General saidthat while an upswing in U.S. yields was negative for the emerging markets asset class, "you are bound to get bigger moves on higher-beta EM stories such as Turkey and South Africa."

Quijano-Evans noted, however, the central bank had managed to tighten policy in recent weeks without verbal interference from the government and that has helped calm lira markets.

"That should show (Turkey's) leadership an independentcentral bank is the most important policy tool they can have," he added.