The Russian rouble slipped back on Thursday morning, weighed down by negative global risk appetite and diminishing demand for roubles to pay monthly taxes. At 0810 GMT, the rouble was 0.1 percent weaker against the dollar at 66.47 and down 0.3 percent to 74.46 versus the euro. Brent crude oil, normally a key driver for all Russian assets, was up 0.6 percent at $48.0 a barrel.
However, this followed a sharp drop in oil prices on Wednesday, when equity and energy markets reacted negatively to weak manufacturing data from both China and the US, the world's two largest economies. Forex Club analyst Anastasia Afansieva said in a note that conversions of forex to pay monthly taxes, which had been supporting the rouble, were no longer a significant factor as the tax period will end soon.
Russian stock indexes also fell on Thursday, hit by concerns about higher corporate taxes as well as negative global sentiment. The dollar-denominated RTS was down 1.2 percent to 772 points while the rouble-based MICEX fell 0.6 percent to 1,630 points. The Russian Finance Ministry is considering raising Mineral Extraction Tax (MET) to compensate for a fall in budget revenues. "The whole matter is that the story with the probable increase in MET continues to put pressure on domestic shares," Hedge.pro managing director Ilya Buturlin said in a note.
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