Russian stocks continued their slide and the ruble fell against the dollar in early trading on Wednesday as rising yields on Italy's sovereign bonds reflected investors' concerns over the ability of the Italian government to solve its debt problems.
As of 11:34 a.m. Moscow time [07:34 GMT], the ruble fell by 15 kopecks against the dollar to 30.84 but grew by 16 kopecks against the euro to 41.47. The value of the bi-currency basket, comprising $0.55 and 0.45 euros, rose by 10 kopecks to 35.63 rubles on Tuesday's close.
The euro fell to $1.3454 from $1.3543 over Italy's rising borrowing costs.
On Tuesday, the yields on Italy's benchmark 10-year sovereign bonds surged past the critical 7 percent mark again, causing a new wave of uncertainty on the market and increasing investors' fears about the ability of the eurozone's third largest economy to refinance its debt, which currently stands at 1.9 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion)..
Russia's dollar-denominated RTS stock index went down 1.37 percent to 1,506.00, while the ruble-denominated MICEX edged down 0.98 percent to 1,473.28.
Global prices for Brent crude decreased by 0.48 percent to $111.64 per barrel on Wednesday after the American Petroleum Institute (API) released a statement that U.S. crude inventories had grown by 1.3 million barrels.
