Banks inactive at UTS

The weighted average dollar rate on tomorrow deals amounted to 30.32 RUR/USD at a special session this morning, which was RUR0.01 lower than the official dollar rate set by the Russian Central Bank for August 22. Commercial bank dealers point to the fact that the ruble has strengthened amid a low trade volume. In the first 30 minutes only 4 deals totaling $400,000 were made at the special session.

Specialists attribute the drop in the dollar and the low trade volume at the UTS to the worsened situation with ruble liquidity at commercial banks. One-day ruble credit rates have been 6 to 8 percent this morning, which is in fact 18 to 24 percent, given the coming weekend. Yesterday, overnight credits did not exceed 3 to 4 percent.