Central Bank prevents dollar drop at morning trade - 4 April, 2003

The Central Bank conducted a rather large ruble intervention at this morning's trading session, several specialists from commercial banks noted in an interview with RBC. One of currency analysts noted that the Central Bank purchased dollars at RUR 31.28. Most active ruble interventions were carried out at the beginning of the Unified Trading Session.

These efforts enabled the Central Bank to prevent a fall in the dollar rate by more than RUR 0.01 against the previous closing and the weighted average dollar was RUR 31.28. Traders estimated the Bank's interventions at about $50m, which accounted for more than 50 percent of the trade volume at the morning trade.