04 June 2004 06:00
Dollar loses 6 kopecks Friday
MOSCOW. June 4 (Interfax) - Trading on the Russian currency market on Friday was active, and the dollar fell
noticeably due to a shortage of rubles following a wave of rumors about conflicts between a number of large banks with
the authorities.
Throughout the day the interbank credit rate reached 5% per year, which is not characteristic for Friday, and the
dollar lost 6 kopecks to 29.03 rubles to the dollar.
Economist Alexander Karpov said. "It is no secret that many oil
companies avoid taxes, but in the end complaints were made only
Derzhava Bank dealer Ksenia Mairova said that growth in the interbank credit rate was due to rumors that a number of
large banks started to review their counter party limits, which was provoked by the situation with CreditTrust, which
announced its bankruptcy. "News of problems at CreditTrust came on the heels of the recent scandal at
Sodbusinessbank, which increased the nervousness of the market and the rates went up, but they did not rise above 5% per
year," she said. "This in turn led to dollar sales on the market, bringing the rate to 29.03 rubles to the
dollar," she said.
"Rumors appeared on the market about allegedly already prepared lists of 'doomed banks' at which
searches and document seizures are planned, which brought to mind the situation at Yukos," Zenit Chief
against Yukos, therefore when a similar topic emerged in the banking sector, people began to insure themselves, which
led to growth in the credit rate," he said.
As a result, Karpov said, there was a wave of hurried sales on the market, which were not related to export revenue,
and the exchange rate fell to 29.03 rubles to the dollar. On the exchange, for example, there was a large deal in the
morning for $102.25 million at 29.04, however according to Karpov the Central Bank was not involved in this, as
otherwise the market would not have fallen below this mark.
Near the end of trading the market got feverish after the publication of unemployment statistics from the U.S., which
coincided with analysts forecasts, and the number of jobs - which exceeded expectations.
"The U.S. statistics caused a significant surge in the euro to the dollar on the international Forex market,
where the exchange rate rollercostered, changing an entire digit -from $1.214 to $1.227," Karpov said.
"Despite the fact that the unemployment and labor figures were not bad, they will not, it seems, be enough to
persuade the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates by 0.5 percentage points, which the market expected, therefore
the nervousness reached its apogee," he said.
The average rate for today dollars at the unified trading session on Friday fell by 2.5 kopecks to 29.0588, while
tomorrow dollars fell by 3.84 kopecks to 29.0473 rubles. The minimum price for deals was 29.0211 rubles to the
dollar.
Total dollar trading on the MICEX on Friday amounted to $883.001 million. Of this total, $472.913 million was in
today trading and $410.088 was in tomorrow trading.
In the euro sector on the MICEX the European currency fell moderately - by 6.53 kopecks to 35.4803 rubles to the
euro. A total of 193 deals were carried out for 5.921 million euros. [RU EUROPE ASIA EEU EMRG EUR FRX BNK CEN INSI] rd
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