MOSCOW: The Russian rouble edged up against the dollar on Thursday after having slipped the day before because of global risk aversion among investors.
At 0735 GMT, the rouble was 0.2 percent stronger against the dollar at 64.71 and had gained 0.1 percent to trade at 72.84 versus the euro.
After hitting seven-month highs earlier this month, the rouble fell on Wednesday as investors' appetite for riskier assets took a hit despite high demand for Russian treasury bonds.
An inversion in the U.S. yield curve has spooked investors, raising concerns about a U.S. recession and triggering a dramatic selloff in global stock markets late last week.
Ksenia Yudaeva, first deputy governor of the Russian central bank, attributed the fall in the rouble to general trends in emerging market currencies.
"Yesterday there was quite strong movement on the markets of developing countries," TASS news agency quoted her as saying. "The rouble was actually one of the currencies least affected by that movement."
The rouble in recent weeks has been bolstered by growing foreign demand for OFZ treasury bonds. The central bank said on Wednesday that foreign investors had accounted for 25.9 percent of OFZ holders as of March 1, up from 25.0 percent a month earlier.
Prices for Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, slipped on Thursday after widely watched data showed a surprising increase in U.S. stocks. Supply cuts led by OPEC and U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and Iran had in recent weeks supported oil prices.
Russian stock indexes were stable.
The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.2 percent at 1,209.82 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was unchanged at 2,487.80 points.
Technical analysis suggests that the MOEX now has support levels at 2,480 and 2,465, while resistance is at 2,500, according to Finam brokerage.
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