Russian rouble stable, supported by tax payments despite lower oil

MOSCOW: The Russian rouble was steady in early trade on Tuesday, pressed by lower oil prices and a stronger dollar but supported by local month-end tax payments.

The rouble was 0.04 percent weaker against the dollar at 65.28 by 0748 GMT and had lost 0.1 percent to trade at 74.85 versus the euro.

Oil prices fell after Saudi Arabia said it would play a "responsible role" in energy markets.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was up 0.60 percent at $79.35 a barrel.

The rouble was also under pressure amid a rising dollar index, as sterling and the euro were hit by uncertainty over Brexit negotiations and Italy's budget plans.

However, the rouble gained support from month-end tax payments in October, for which export-focused firms buy the currency.

"Tangible support for the rouble continues, perhaps from the international bid for long OFZs (government bonds): the latter outperformed the majority of peers yesterday," analysts at VTB Capital said in a note.

The market is awaiting the Friday meeting of the Russian central bank, though no major policy change is seen. Twenty-five analysts and economists polled by Reuters said they expected the key rate to remain at 7.50 percent.

Russian stock indexes were down.

The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.46 percent to 1,111.51 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index  was 0.24 percent lower at 2,302.66 points.

Shares in search engine Yandex recovered 1.42 percent after being hit by a report from Interfax news agency that the government was proposing to limit foreign ownership in online news aggregators.