Russian ruble rebounds slightly after record plunge

[MOSCOW] The Russian ruble rebounded slightly as markets opened Wednesday, after the currency lost a fifth of its value in a single day in the worst crisis of President Vladimir Putin's 15 years in power.

At around 0800 GMT, the ruble was trading at 66.80 to the dollar, down from 67.88 on Tuesday evening, and at 83.38 to the euro from 85.15. The markets had opened with the ruble down 3 percent.

The central bank said Wednesday it had spent US$1.96 billion on Monday in a bid to prop up the currency. The regulator has spent more than US$10 billion from its currency reserves since the start of the month and has been harshly criticised for its failure to halt the ruble's fall.

AFP