BLBG:Ruble Slides Most In Week Versus Basket As Urals Crude Oil Falls
The ruble lost the most against the central bank’s target dollar-euro basket in almost a week as Greek steps toward renegotiating its bailout austerity measures hurt prices for oil, Russia’s main export.
The Russian currency depreciated 0.4 percent to 36.335 against the basket by the close in Moscow, the biggest loss since June 14. The country’s 28 billion rubles ($858 million) of bonds due 2027 fell, increasing the yield by three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 8.89 percent.
Urals retreated 0.5 percent to $93.88 per barrel after Evangelos Venizelos, head of Greece’s Pasok party, said he agreed with the leader of the Democratic Left party to put together a team to renogotiate some of the terms included in the country’s international rescue.
“It’s in line with the headlines from Europe, and the major driver is oil,” Sergey Fishgoyt, deputy head of foreign exchange at Moscow-based brokerage Otkritie Financial Corp., said by e-mail. The selloff will probably continue unless global sentiment improves, he said.
The ruble dropped 0.7 percent to 41.0925 per euro and was little changed at 32.4425 per dollar. Investors pared bets on the currency weakening, with non-deliverable forwards showing the ruble at 32.9212 per dollar in three months, compared with expectations of 32.9845 per dollar yesterday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Jordan in Moscow at jjordan22@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net
