On Friday, September 30, 2022, the ruble reached its highest level in nearly eight years against the euro. As Russia prepares to annex four Ukrainian regions, investors, for their part, fear that new sanctions against Moscow will limit currency exchanges.

To trade at 51.87 against the euro, the ruble had gained 6.5% around 09:29 GMT. It thus reached its strongest mark since mid-October 2014 earlier at 51.3100. Also, it strengthened by 4.8% against the dollar at 54.44 and earlier reached its strongest point since July 1 of 54.1625.

Based on the ruble, the MOEX index was up 0.3% to 1,959.4 points and the RTS index denominated in dollars was up 5.5% to 1,131.6 points. The pound, for its part, jumped again against the dollar on Friday, September 30, 2022. Thus, it rose 6.64% to 1.1189 dollars for the fourth consecutive session of increase, moving the currency away from its all-time low reached at 1.0350 dollars around 09:10 GMT (11:10 CET) on Monday.

The pound has returned to last Friday's level after a volatile week, which saw the Bank of England intervene in the bond market and the pound-dollar pair fall from 1% to increases of a similar magnitude over several sessions.

At the end of the week, the euro also rose and on Friday 30 September 2022 1.14% to 0.9829 dollars after hitting its lowest point in more than 20 years on Wednesday at 0.9536 dollars.