UPDATE: Ruble slump speeds up after Trump’s tweet

(Rewrites to add new details)

MOSCOW, Apr 11 (PRIME) -- The Russian ruble’s slide accelerated after the U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to Russia on his Twitter account on Wednesday.

“Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” he said.

As of 2:12 p.m. the ruble fell by 1.77 rubles against the dollar to 64.79 and it dropped 2.31 rubles against the euro to 80.16.

The domestic stock market is consolidating after wide fluctuations of the past two days with most blue chips rising and troubled RUSAL and En+ Group losing 2.2-4.2%, as seen by PRIME on the Moscow Exchange.

The MOEX Russia Index added 0.18% and the RTS fell 2.73% as of 2:32 p.m. Moscow time.

Strong crude prices prop up the oil and gas sector. Rosneft rose 2.62%, Lukoil grew 0.96% and Tatneft rose 0.85%.

Analysts said that the stock market “storm” seems to be calming down.

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