Currency Experts, "Dollar Drop Was Predictable"

The Central Bank has not interfered with a special currency trading session today, said foreign exchange experts in an interview with RBC today. They also stressed that the Central Bank did not seem to conduct currency interventions on the interbank market either. According to them, right after the opening of the morning trade, deals were made at a lower dollar rate than the official exchange rate of 29.51 rubles per dollar set for October 16. The dollar was valued at 29.49 rubles at the beginning of the special trading session. As a result, the spread between the high and low on the dollar at the unified trading session was very insignificant - just one kopeck. The experts added that a drop in the average weighted dollar rate by 2 kopecks was quite expectable, because there was a shortage of ruble liquidity on corresponding accounts. They also drew attention to the fact that the trading volume of the unified trading session almost remained the same as yesterday, falling by less than one million dollars only.