MOSCOW: The Russian rouble weakened on Moscow’s first trading day of 2024 on Wednesday, sliding towards the 92 mark to the dollar and away from the one-month high reached at the end of last year.
At 0801 GMT, the rouble was 1% weaker against the dollar at 91.30. It had traded as strong as 88.70, a one-month high, on Dec. 29.
It had lost 0.4% to trade at 99.98 versus the euro and shed 0.9% against the yuan to 12.73.
Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, was down 0.4% at $75.59 a barrel.
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Since October and the rouble’s most recent slide to 100 against the dollar, a presidential decree forcing exporters to convert some foreign currency revenue supported the Russian currency, as have elevated interest rates, which were hiked to 16% last month.
The central bank said in late December it would sell 11.8 billion roubles ($129.2 million) of foreign currency a day in addition to monthly operations it carries out on the finance ministry’s behalf, another measure buttressing the Russian currency.
Russian stock indexes were mixed.
The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.6% to 1,077.0 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.7% higher at 3,121.3 points.
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