The ruble weakened to its lowest level in nine months Monday and stocks slid the most in almost two weeks as oil fell below $72 per barrel and copper prices declined.
Russia's currency weakened 0.9 percent to 31.72 per dollar, its lowest close since Sept. 2. Oil producer Gazprom Neft fell 4 percent and steelmaker Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works dropped 4.3 percent, dragging the 30-stock MICEX Index 0.9 percent lower to 1,322. The benchmark earlier fell as much as 3.3 percent for its biggest intraday drop since May 25.
Crude oil, the country's chief export, traded at $71.24 per barrel in New York, $2.01 lower than at the close of equities trading in Moscow. Oil earlier fell to as low as $69.51 per barrel after a U.S. Labor Department report on Friday showed that payrolls rose less than economists anticipated.
The MICEX Index has slumped 14 percent from its high on April 15 on growing concern that Greece's sovereign debt crisis is spilling over to other European nations. The Group of 20 finance chiefs meeting in Busan, South Korea, on Friday and Saturday failed to agree on steps to ensure that the economic recovery would strengthen and said the global rebound faces "significant challenges."
Copper, which entered a bear market last week, slumped to the lowest price in more than seven months on the London Metal Exchange, losing as much as 3.3 percent. It last traded down 1.2 percent to $6,204 a ton. Norilsk Nickel, the country's biggest mining company, declined 1.3 percent to 4,863.06 rubles.
Sberbank gained for the third day in four, rising 1.2 percent to 71.02 rubles after the bank, Russia's largest lender, posted a record first-quarter profit. Net income jumped 75-fold from a year earlier to 43.4 billion rubles ($1.37 billion), beating Citigroup's 37.9 billion ruble estimate and VTB Group's 39 billion ruble forecast.
The ruble was 0.2 percent weaker against the euro at 37.94.
Investors increased bets that the ruble would weaken further, with nondeliverable forwards showing the currency at 31.91 per dollar in three months, compared with an NDF of 31.75 on June 4. The contracts are a guide to expectations of currency movements because they allow foreign investors and companies to fix the exchange rate at a particular level in the future.