Rouble eases amid US-China tensions, Aeroflot shares fall

MOSCOW: The Russian rouble weakened in light trade on Monday amid a global rise in risk aversion, though avoiding this month's lows, while shares in airline Aeroflot fell after one of its passenger planes crash-landed on Sunday, killing 41 people.

The rouble was 0.3 percent down at 65.25 versus the dollar as of 0745 GMT, hovering at a distance from its weakest level since Feb. 14 of 67.00 briefly hit last week.

The rouble came under pressure along with other emerging market currencies after US President Donald Trump stunned global markets with a tweet late on Sunday, announcing he would hike US tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods this week and target hundreds of billions more soon.

"The situation around US-China talks and oil prices' reaction to this will remain the key theme for the rouble during this short week," Nordea Bank analysts said in a note.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was down 1.9 percent at $69.52 a barrel, its lowest since April 5.

"Trading in the rouble is set to remain inactive as the May holidays in Russia will resume on Thursday," analysts at VTB Capital said in a note.

Market moves are exacerbated by low trading activity, which is set to be below average between May 1-13 as the Moscow Exchange is closed on some of those days and many traders are away from their desks.

Against the euro, the rouble was 0.1 percent weaker at 73.01 .

Looking forward, market players will keep an eye on talks between Russian and US foreign ministers after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks last week.

Russian stock indexes were down, tracing oil prices. The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 1 percent to 1,253.4 points, while the rouble-based MOEX was 0.9 percent lower at 2,558.5 points.

Aeroflot shares underperformed, losing 2 percent on the day having briefly hit 92.70 roubles ($1.42) per piece, their lowest level since October.

Forty-one people aboard an Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet 100 passenger plane were killed on Sunday after the aircraft caught fire as it made a bumpy emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.