YEREVAN, July 15. /ARKA/. Last week, the cost of U.S. dollar at NASDAQ OMX Armenia stock exchange fell by 0.63% to 409.53 drams as the weekly trading rose to $8.84 million, 2.27 times more than the previous week. The drop in the value of the greenback was primarily due to reduced demand by businesses and individuals.

The drop was possibly due to also the intervention of the Central Bank, which sought to maintain the exchange rate of the national currency, as evidenced by declining gold and hard currency reserves. Thus, according to preliminary data, in June the reserves decreased by 3.83% from the previous month to $1.605.7 billion. This week the U.S. dollar is likely to trade at 409- 410.0 drams.

The recovery of the U.S. currency will be prevented by decreased purchases of U.S. currency by public and businesses. According to the Central Bank of Armenia, net sales of foreign exchange by commercial banks last week slashed by 64 percent from the previous week to $4.414 million.

The cost of euro last week was determined by developments at the global currency market where the EUR/USD rose by 1.85% to 1.3066 and the dynamics of the dram against the U.S. currency. The single European currency got a significant boost on Wednesday after more restrained than anticipated speech of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Strengthening dram last week was another factor restraining the rise in the value of USD and Euro. As a result the euro rose by 0.34% to 539.94 drams.

The Russian ruble rose last week by 0.79% to 12.75 drams, due to its rising cost against the U.S. dollar.

By Mikael Verdyan, analyst for OREX CLUB, specially for the agency "ARKA"
Views of the author may not necessarily represent those of the news agency