MOSCOW: The Russian rouble was little changed in morning trade on Monday, restrained by a drop in oil prices while waiting for more support from exporters’ foreign currency sales.
At 0729 GMT, the rouble was 0.1% stronger against the dollar at 92.23 and had lost 0.1% to trade at 98.68 versus the euro. It was unchanged against the yuan at 12.61.
“Today we do not see significant reasons for increased volatility on the FX market,” said Yevgeny Loktyukhov of Promsvyazbank in a note.
“We believe that sales of foreign currency by exporters will likely remain moderate and their activation can be expected next week, closer to tax payments,” Loktyukhov said, expecting the rouble to trade in the 91.5-93 range to the dollar this week. Month-end tax payments usually see exporters convert foreign exchange revenues to pay domestic liabilities.
Russian rouble strengthens past 92 vs dollar
The rouble has also been buoyed lately by a presidential decree requiring some exporters to convert a significant portion of FX revenues.
The Russian currency has strengthened from beyond 100 to the dollar since that decree was announced last month.
The central bank’s bigger-than-expected rate hike to 15% in late October has also helped.
Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, was down 0.8% at $80.76 a barrel. Russian stock indexes were higher.
The dollar-denominated RTS index rose 0.2% to 1,109.4 points.
The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.2% higher at 3,247.1 points.
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