Russian rouble down ahead of May holidays, Sberbank underperforms

MOSCOW: The Russian rouble weakened and stocks indexes headed lower on Tuesday, paring the previous day's gains, before Russia's long May holidays.

The rouble shed 0.3 percent to 64.64 versus the dollar as of 0802 GMT, moving away from Monday's peak of 64.41.

"The rouble is under pressure along with the majority of other emerging market currencies," Nordea Bank said in a note.

Still, the rouble's "fundamentals look among most solid of the majority of its EM peers," VTB Capital said in a note to clients.

Against the euro, the rouble eased 0.4 percent to 72.34 .

Trading activity was on the decline and investors were unwilling to take new positions as the Moscow Exchange will be closed for public holidays on May 1 and May 9. Little market activity is expected between those dates.

Russian stock indexes also inched lower even though Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was up 0.3 percent to $72.28 a barrel, boding well for Russian assets.

The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.6 percent to 1,247.7 points, while the rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.4 percent lower at 2,560.3. points.

Shares in Sberbank underperformed, losing 1.2 percent on the day after Russia's largest lender reported a decline in profitability in the first quarter.