MarketsRouble falls for sixth day amid intervention talk

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The rouble is having more trouble.

The Russian currency has opened 2.5 per cent lower, falling for a sixth consecutive day to 47.77 per US dollar.

This comes after Russian bank VTB said that the rouble's slide 'poses certain risks for financial stability' and could trigger 'sizeable' Central Bank of Russia interventions, according to Bloomberg. The VTB analysts were not immediately available for comment when contacted by fast FT.

Wrote Timothy Ash of Standard Bank:

When a big state-owned Russian bank makes a statement that the 30% YTD rouble depreciation 'poses certain risks for financial stability' you know you have a problem Houston or Baikonur [where the Soviet cosmonauts were based]. I think they would likely be very nervous about making such statements, so hence the message is they are worried.

A large intervention would represent a shift in policy by the Russian central bank. On Wednesday the CRB announced an effective free float of the rouble, which has been buffeted by falling oil prices and Western sanctions prompted by Russia's activities in Ukraine.

The CBR said it would now spend no more than $350m a day smoothing the rouble's fluctuations when it approached the edge of a trading band, and it would allow the exchange rate to be determined 'predominantly by market factors'.

But it underlined that it was still ready to make one-off interventions if the exchange rate posed a threat to financial stability.