Ruble Slumps Toward Intervention Levels, Heading for Record Low - Bloomberg

Ruble Slumps Toward Intervention Levels, Heading for Record Low - Bloomberg:



"The ruble weakened for a second day, testing the central bank’s intervention level, as oil slumped to the lowest level in more than two years.



The ruble retreated 0.1 percent to 44.4893 against the regulator’s basket of dollars and euros at 6 p.m. in Moscow, when the central bank stops its market operations. The price of oil, which with natural gas brings the state budget half its revenue, fell 0.9 percent to $91.52 a barrel in London, the lowest level since June 2012. The ruble dropped 14 percent against the dollar last quarter, the worst performance globally, as crude slid and clashes continued in east Ukraine.



The central bank said it shifted the upper bound of the trading band 10 kopeks to 44.50 on Oct. 3, signaling it sold at least $700 million that day. Judging by the price action, it might have sold another $350 million in the morning today, shifting the basket’s boundary a further 5 kopeks to 44.55, according to Dmitry Dorofeev, a money manager at BCS Financial Group."



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