Rouble slips past 80 vs dollar, Rosbank shares extend rally

MOSCOW: The Russian rouble weakened past 80 to the dollar on Tuesday, heading away from 2022 highs reached last week, while shares in Rosbank bucked the weaker trend in stock markets to jump 40% for a second day in a row.

Shares in Rosbank, a Russian subsidiary of French bank Societe Generale, rallied after SocGen said it would quit Russia and take a 3 billion euro ($3.3 billion) income hit from selling Rosbank to Interros Capital, a firm linked to Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin.

By 0758 GMT, the rouble had eased 1% to 79.84 after sliding to 80.29 as it headed away from the 71 roubles hit on Friday which was its strongest since Nov. 11.

Against the euro, the rouble was steady at 86.42 .

The rouble came under selling pressure this week after the central bank scrapped a 12% commission for buying foreign currency through brokerages from Monday and promised to lift a temporary ban on selling foreign exchange cash to individuals from April 18.

The central bank and the finance ministry are not interested in the rouble strengthening as it affects budget incomes, said Georgy Ayvazov, an analyst at Alfa Capital.

Still, the rouble retains support from the obligatory conversion of 80% of FX revenues by export-focused companies as well as from high interest rates, even though the central bank unexpectedly cut its key rate to 17% from 20% last week.

Russia ran a record current account surplus of $58.2 billion in the first quarter of 2022, which, if extrapolated, suggests the rouble could stay within a range of 65-85 to the dollar this year, said Dmitry Polevoy, head of investment at Locko Invest.

But exporters are now struggling to sell FX due to weak demand as imports have dwindled because of western sanctions against Russia for what it calls “a special military operation” in Ukraine that started on Feb. 24, Vedomosti daily reported, citing sources.

On the stock market, the dollar-denominated RTS index fell 3.8% to 978.7 points and the rouble-based MOEX Russian index shed 3.2% to 2,475.9 points.