Sep 07, 2022 04:30AM ET
By:AnalysisWatch
The ruble weakened Wednesday, pressured by lower oil prices, as President Vladimir Putin told an economic forum in Russia's far east that the West's futile and aggressive attempts to isolate Russia with sanctions were failing.
Putin, speaking at the Russian Far East Economic Forum in the Pacific city of Vladivostok, said Western efforts were destroying the world economy just as Asia was rising to claim the future.
At 0748 GMT, the ruble was 0.1% weaker against the dollar at 61.28 and losing 0.4% against the euro at 60.66.
The ruble could test the 61.5 mark against the dollar today amid oil prices under pressure, analysts at Promsvyazbank said in a note.
This year, the ruble has been the world's best-performing currency, thanks to emergency capital controls put in place by the central bank in an attempt to stop a massive sell-off after Feb. 24, when Russia began what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine.
This helped avert the economic collapse that many had predicted and has allowed Russian officials to make more positive forecasts about the health of the economy.
Russian stocks fell after the benchmark MOEX index hit a more than four-month high of 2,492.15 points in the previous session.
The index received support last week from gas giant Gazprom, which reported a record first-half 2022 net profit and recommended interim dividend payments after omitting its annual payout for the first time since 1998.
"Russian equities experienced profit-taking after the Moscow Stock Exchange announced it would give access to the stock market to non-residents of friendly states from Sept. 12, triggering fears of overload," Alfa Bank equity strategist John Walsh said in a note.
Russia's ruble-based MOEX index was down 0.4% to 2,416.1 points. The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.8% to 1,242.4 points.
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