OREANDA-NEWS  The level of the RTS — the market capitalization-weighted composite index of the Russian stock market — fell by three percent within a minute on Friday evening. This happened after the Bank of Russia sharply increased the official exchange rates of the dollar and the euro, with reference to the data of the Moscow Exchange, TASS states.

According to the agency, by 17:30 Moscow time, the RTS index had moved from a slight to a steady decline of 3.01 percent — from 1,150.13 points to 1,117.1 points. By the close, the indicator was down 3.17 percent compared to the result of trading on June 20.

The day before, against the background of the Central Bank's publication of exchange rates, the RTS index also experienced a drop, moving from an almost three percent increase to a decrease of 0.8 percent.

The Bank of Russia set the official dollar exchange rate at 87.96 rubles on June 22-24, which is 2.54 rubles higher than the previous indicator. The euro also rose by 2.81 rubles to 94.2606 rubles. Two days ago, the official dollar and euro exchange rates, which the Central Bank now sets based on bank reporting data on the results of transactions on the over-the-counter foreign exchange market, were 82.63 and 89.09 rubles.

The ruble demonstrates high volatility after the United States imposed sanctions on the Moscow Stock Exchange and the National Clearing Center (NCC) on June 12, which stopped the exchange trading of American and European currencies.