MOSCOW: The slumping ruble fell further on Wednesday as traders largely overlooked Turkey's aggressive interest rate rise to focus on the possibility of further moves by Russia's Central Bank to devalue the currency.
The dollar was up 0.1 percent to 34.88 rubles at 1:00 pm (0900 GMT) and seemed poise to add further to a five-year high it established against the Russian currency this week.
The euro was also up 0.2 percent to 47.68 rubles on the Moscow Exchange -- the range of an historic high it first set on Monday.
Russia's Central Bank meanwhile announced that it had spent more than $1.1 billion (800 million euros) propping up the ruble on Monday as emerging market currencies plunged in value across the world.
The figure represented the highest rate of Central Bank intervention for more than two years and was four times the amount it had spent on the Moscow Exchange the previous trading day.
The Central Bank on Wednesday also moved higher for the 11th time this month the currency's trading band against a mixed basket of dollars and euros.
Bank governors automatically raise the band they use to determine monetary policy by five kopeks when the ruble comes under significant selling pressure.
They moved that corridor up by 15 kopeks on Monday.
Traders said the ruble was relieved of some pressure by the Turkish central bank's overnight decision to hike interests rates well above expectations in a move meant to prop up the lira and stem the flow of investors from emerging markets.
But sentiment once against turned against the Russian currency when the Central Bank's First Deputy Chairwoman Ksenya Yudayeva told The Wall Street Journal that stress tests showed Russian banks being able could handle a 30-percent ruble depreciation.
Russia's Central Bank has diminished the amount of its direct interventions on the market as it moves to a fully floating exchange rate by the start of next year.
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