MOSCOW - The Russian rouble headed towards four-year lows on Friday as oil prices turned lower and concerns about the coronavirus epidemic remained in the spotlight, also putting pressure on Russian stocks.

At 0747 GMT, the rouble was 0.3% weaker against the dollar at 77.71, moving closer to its weakest since early 2016 of 81.97 hit last week.

Versus the euro, the rouble eased 0.2% to 85.60.

The rouble is mostly driven by oil prices as well as global market sentiment steered by developments around the global coronavirus outbreak.

"Uncertainty about the scale of the pandemic impact on the economy as well as discordance between euro zone leaders on the necessary economic support measures keep on pressuring investors' readiness to take risks," Olma Brokerage said.

The health of the Russian economy is in focus as an increasing number of small businesses are temporarily closing down amid the coronavirus, while President Vladimir Putin ordered banks to provide a grace period on interest and principal payments to borrowers among other measures.

Many of the measures proposed by Putin "will have an immediate credit-negative effect on banks," Moody's rating agency said.

Standard&Poor's rating agency on Friday confirmed Russia's sovereign rating at BBB- with a stable outlook but warned that the economy is now on track to contract by 0.8% this year before growing by 3.8% next year.

"We understand that the banking system currently maintains adequate capital and liquidity buffers," S&P said.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was down 0.7% at $26.17 a barrel, putting pressure on stock indexes.

The dollar-denominated RTS index slid 1.4% to 1,002.86 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.6% lower at 2,475.0 points.

 

(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Angus MacSwan) ((andrey.ostroukh@thomsonreuters.com; +7 495 775 1242;))