You're reading: Russian stocks decline at open on Friday amid currency downgrade, Ukraine tension

Russian stocks decline at open on Friday amid currency downgrade, Ukraine tension

Published April 25, 2014 at 10:26 am

According to Bloomberg's report on April 25,l Russia's sovereign rating was cut to the lowest investment level at Standard & Poor's and may face further downgrades if growth deteriorates and the U.S. and Europe apply wider sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine.

Photo by Standard & Poor\u2019s

Russian stock indexes opened lower on Friday following S&P's downgrade of Russia's sovereign rating - with negative outlook - and amid heightened tension in Ukraine.

The MICEX index was down 0.6% to 1,293.26 points and the RTS index was down 0.7% to 1,137.53 as of 10:01 a.m. Moscow time.

The blue chips posted declines of as much as 1.5%.