MOSCOW: The rouble edged lower against the dollar on Thursday, with traders saying President Vladimir Putin had offered few concrete measures at his end-of-year news conference to pull Russia out of a crisis.
The president said Russia's economy would inevitably rebound but provided no clear plan to tackle the crisis that has seen the rouble collapse around 45 percent against the dollar this year.
At 1355 GMT, the rouble was around 1.3 percent weaker against the dollar at 61.00 after opening more than 1 percent higher. The rouble was 0.1 percent stronger versus the euro at 75.05, after falling during Putin's speech.
Selling pressure on Thursday was less intense than earlier in the week which saw the rouble fall around 20 percent against the dollar at one stage on Tuesday, sparking fears of financial meltdown and posing a major challenge for Russia's leadership.
The currency has been hit this year by slumping oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine, and the central bank's inability to prop it up -- despite two hefty interest rate hikes in the past week -- has raised fears Russia will have to resort to capital controls.
Putin, however, said Russia did not plan to order domestic exporters to sell their foreign-currency earnings - in what analysts say would be a form of capital controls - but urged his government and the central bank to work closely with them.
He reiterated the central bank should not "burn through" its reserves to support the currency and said the bank should have stopped its forex market interventions a long time ago. If it had, it would not have had to raise its key interest rate in an emergency move this week, he said.
"This point restricts the Bank of Russia in the issue of carrying out interventions on the currency market, which could once more be used by market participants in the 'game' against the rouble," analysts at BCS brokerage said in a note.
The rouble fell around 10 percent on Monday, forcing the central bank to hike its key interest rate by an unexpected 650 basis points early on Tuesday, though this provided little support.
By Thursday afternoon the rouble had lost 5 percent against the dollar this week, after a short-lived rebound on Wednesday when the finance ministry said it was selling forex and the central bank announced a broad package of measures to support the banking sector and promised to make more foreign currency available via its repo auctions.
Oil prices, a crucial driver for Russia's export revenues, picked up on Thursday with Brent crude gaining more than 3 percent to over $63 a barrel.
Analysts see a probable pickup in exporter selling to meet end-of-month tax payments as a factor that could help the Russian currency to recover lost ground. The bulk of the monthly taxes fall due next week.
Fitch ratings agency said on Thursday the recent extreme rouble volatility and higher interest rates will deepen the severity of the recession in Russia next year.
SISTEMA SURGES
The rebound in the oil price helped Russian shares, which rose sharply on Thursday, reversing some of the heavy losses seen earlier in the week.
Business conglomerate Sistema jumped more than 100 percent after its chairman was freed from house arrest a day earlier and as Putin said he hoped Sistema would restore its position in the market.
Vladimir Yevtushenkov's arrest and the seizure by the state of one of Sistema's most valuable assets, its stake in oil company Bashneft, have dented business sentiment in Russia and caused a collapse in Sistema's share price.
The rouble-denominated MICEX index was up 6 percent at 1,492 points, while the dollar-denominated RTS rose 7 percent to 767 points.
Uralkali, the world's largest potash producer, postponed the cancellation of 12.5 percent of its treasury shares on Thursday, in a move that was supposed to increase its free float to 38 percent from 33 percent.
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