Russian roubles recovers vs dollar, firms vs euro

MOSCOW: The Russian rouble was steady near two-week lows versus the dollar on Tuesday.

The rouble tracked moves on the global forex market where the dollar edged to a two-week high versus its rivals after US President Donald Trump and congressional leaders reached a deal on a two-year extension of the debt limit.

The Russian market showed little reaction so far to an incident in South Korea where South Korean warplanes fired hundreds of warning shots at a Russian military aircraft that entered Korean airspace on Tuesday.

At 0730 GMT, the rouble was unchanged on the day at 63.10 against the dollar after briefly easing to 63.23, a level last seen on July 10.

Versus the euro, the rouble gained 0.2pc to 70.62 per euro .

The Russian currency retained support from monthly tax payments that tend to boost demand for the rouble from export-focused companies that convert their FX revenues to meet local liabilities.

Prices of oil, Russia's main export, were stable after edging up on Tuesday morning on concerns about possible supply disruptions in the Middle East.

Brent crude oil was up 0.06pc at $63.30 a barrel.

Russian stock indexes were up. The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.35pc to 1,346 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.4pc higher at 2,694 points.