Russia’s Ruble Weakens against Euro over Greek Deal

Bloomberg -The ruble weakened for a fourth day against the euro as Greece won a second bailout. The Russian currency was little changed against the dollar and bonds fell.

The ruble lost as much as 0.3 percent before trading little changed at 39.4925 per euro as of 11:50 a.m. in Moscow.

The yield on Russia’s $3.5 billion of bonds due 2020 rose for the first time in three days, climbing two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 4.128 percent.

European finance ministers awarded Greece 130 billion euros ($173 billion) in aid and persuaded investor representatives into providing more debt relief in an exchange offer meant to tide Greece past a bond redemption next month. The European Union is Russia’s largest trading partner.

“People got short on the basket against the ruble before the actual decision” on Greece, Mikhail Palei, a currency trader at VTB Capital in London, said by e-mail. “There was a lot priced in. We may be in a ‘buy the rumor, sell the fact’ type of thing.”

The ruble was little changed at 34.17 against the central bank’s target dollar-euro basket after gaining 0.7 percent in the previous two sessions. The Russian currency was steady at 29.8175 per dollar.