Russian ruble, stocks at their lowest after the fall in the mobilization

KAZAN, Russia, Sept 21 (Reuters) – The ruble recovered from a two-month low and Russian stocks pared losses on Wednesday after falling triggered by President Vladimir Putin’s decision to order the first military mobilization of Russia since World War II.

Putin said he had signed a partial mobilization decree, dramatically stepping up what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, and warned that Moscow would respond with the might of its vast arsenal if the West continued. what he called his “nuclear blackmail”. “. Read more

At 4:07 p.m. GMT, the ruble was 0.2% weaker at 60.69 to the dollar, after falling as low as 62.7975, its weakest point since July 7.

It reversed early losses to trade up 0.7% to 60.15 to the euro and 0.8% against the yuan to 8.577.

The ruble has been the world’s best-performing currency this year, buoyed by emergency capital controls put in place by the central bank in a bid to stop a sell-off.

Putin’s rally and warning to the West also wreaked havoc on global markets, with investors flocking to safe havens and the pound hitting a new 37-year low against the dollar.

STOCKS EXTEND LOSS

Geopolitics dominated Russian markets early in the session, but analysts and officials played down the impact.

On the day of the opening of a banking forum in Kazan, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma’s financial committee, said the mobilization was not discussed at a meeting of the Russian banking association .

“We did not discuss issues of mobilization and staffing of banks,” Aksakov told reporters. “Financial life follows the same regime as before the announcement of the special operation.”

He also said the association had discussed mortgage payment holidays for callees.

Russian stock indices fell, extending a slide that began on Tuesday as rumors of a possible mobilization spread, with energy giants Rosneft (ROSN.MM) and Gazprom (GAZP.MM) at one point, losing around 12% each, before stabilizing at around 5.6% and 2.8% lower respectively.

The ruble-based MOEX benchmark (.IMOEX) hit its lowest point since February 24, the day Russia sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine, before cutting some losses.

Analysts at Tinkoff Investments said it was the biggest drop in the MOEX since Feb. 24, when the index lost more than 30% in one day.

The MOEX index fell 3.8% to 2,130.7 points, after earlier hitting a low of 2,002.73 points. The dollar-denominated RTS index (.IRTS) fell 4.1% to 1,106.8 points, having earlier hit its lowest point since April 27.

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Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Mark Potter and Jonathan Oatis

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