Dollar continues retreat; ruble gains in first minutes of MICEX trade on Tues
MOSCOW. July 28 (Interfax) - Although the dollar opened slightly higher against the ruble on the MICEX currency exchange on Tuesday, it quickly surrendered that gain and edged lower in the first minutes of trading on the optimism sweeping oil and equities markets.
The dollar opened trading in "tom" contracts at 30.68 rubles/$1 but fell to 30.60-30.64 rubles/$1 within the next minute, to about 5 kopecks below Monday's close and approximately 10 kopecks below the Central Bank's official exchange rate.
The euro opened at 43.75 rubles/1 euro, roughly 4-5 kopecks below the previous close.
The bicurrency basket ($0.55 and 0.45 euro) opened at about 36.57 rubles but declined to 36.52-36.54 rubles by 10:10 a.m. The basket is at its lowest level since the early days of June.
The Interfax Center for Economic Analysis said the currency basket was declining due to rising oil prices and gains on equities in early trading on Tuesday.