June 30 (Reuters) – The Russian ruble fell to a more than 15-month low against the dollar and euro on Friday, weighed on concerns of domestic political risk after an aborted armed uprising over the weekend and without any support engine.
By 10:00 GMT, the ruble was 0.8% weaker against the dollar at 88.25 after hitting 88.6775, its weakest since March 29, 2022.
It lost 0.7% to trade at 95.78 against the euro after also hitting a 15-month low of 96.3225. It fell 0.6% against the yuan to 12.13, and earlier hit a more than 14-month low.
“The ruble continues to sink,” Alor Broker said in a note. “Yesterday it lost another 1.4% of value, despite stabilizing oil.
“The goal of the dollar-ruble pair of 90 is approaching and is likely to be achieved.”
The ruble sinks to a more than 15-month low
Capital controls have helped insulate the ruble from geopolitics in the 16 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, but mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted weekend march to Moscow reverberated through markets and left questions about the ‘President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.
The ruble lost a key support factor on Wednesday as the month-end tax period typically sees exporters convert earnings into foreign currency to meet approved local liabilities.
Bank of Russia Deputy Governor Alexei Zabotkin said shrinking export earnings and the balance of payments were driving the ruble’s weakening, which he said did not pose risks to financial stability.
“But certainly the dynamics of the exchange rate will be taken into account at the next meeting of the board on the key rate to clarify the impact … on the dynamics of inflation this year,” said the Interfax news agency citing Zabotkin this Friday.
Brent crude, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, rose 0.6% to $74.75 a barrel.
Russian stock indexes were lower.
The dollar-denominated RTS index (.IRTS) fell 1.3% to 994.0 points. Russia’s ruble-based index MOEX (.IMOEX) was down 0.4% at 2,784.6 points.
Gazprom ( GAZP.MM ) shares fell about 0.7% after the energy group’s shareholders approved the board’s recommendation to pay no dividends for 2022 after allocating a semi-annual dividend of 1 .2 trillion rubles ($13.6 billion).
($1 = 88.2200 rubles)
Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Jamie Freed, Robert Birsel and Jane Merriman
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Alexander Marrow
