MOSCOW: The Russian rouble fell on Monday ahead the finance ministry's announcement of purchases of foreign currency for its reserves in March and pressed by overall investor fears of a global trade war.
The most important emerging market currencies were down after US President Donald Trump proposed steep tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium.
At 0800 GMT, the rouble was 0.5 percent weaker against the dollar at 57.11 and had lost 0.17 percent to trade at 70.19 versus the euro.
In the preceding period, between Feb. 7 and March 6, the finance ministry's plan envisaged record-high purchases of foreign currency in amount of 298.1 billion roubles ($5.22 billion).
The ministry is expected to lower purchases in March as oil prices slid from multi-month peaks seen in early 2017, a Reuters poll showed.
It is expected to be buying an equivalent of 265 billion roubles between March 7 and April 5, according to a consensus forecast of 11 analysts.
Analysts at Rosbank, a Russian subsidiary of Societe Generale, said on a note such volumes should not be reason for a rouble correction.
"The persisting high current account in March will support the balance of foreign currency liquidity in the economy, even amid high external debt repayments," analysts said.
The rouble was supported by oil prices which were rising ahead of a meeting between OPEC and US shale firms in Houston, raising expectations that oil producers would discuss how to limit the global oil glut.
Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was up 0.51 percent at $64.67 a barrel.
Russian stock indexes were up.
The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.75 percent to 1,271 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.62 percent higher at 2,303 points.
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