The Russian ruble extends losses and continues to lose ground against the greenback, falling to 3-week lows.
At the end of the morning, the Russian currency changed hands at $ 78.40 in a trade that remains uncertain and volatilewith investors following the crisis in Ukraine step-by-step, writing off last session’s gains, while Russian stocks plummeted as fears of imminent military action in Ukraine outweighed hopes that diplomatic efforts would resolve the crisis .
At the end of the morning, the ruble was down by 1.5% against the dollar to 78.45, the weakest value since January 27, slipping from 76.1450 at the beginning of the session.
The Russian currency loses 1.6% against the euro at 88.96, still at its lowest since the end of January. The Moscow Stock Exchange’s Moex Index plummeted -2.5% to 3,300 points, extending last week’s large losses.
The Kremlin said there are still no concrete plans for a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Bidenbut that a call or a meeting could be organized at any time, offering a possible way out of one of the most dangerous European crises of recent decades.
But Russian assets, very sensitive to any news coming from Ukraine, headed lower as Britain warned that a Russian invasion was highly likely and because bombing reports continued.
Moscow for its part has repeatedly denied that it intends to invade the neighboring country.
“The week opens again on fragile hopes on the geopolitical front”, BCS Global Markets said, pointing to the possible Putin-Biden summit and a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov scheduled for Thursday.
“All in all, hope dies hard, but the risk of conflict persists,” he added. Yields on 10-year Ofz bonds jumped to 10.22%, the highest level since February 2016.
Dollar bonds have been trading near their lowest level since March 2020.