MOSCOW: The Russian rouble was steady on Tuesday, shrugging off the finance ministry's plan to reduce daily purchases of foreign currency, while the benchmark stock index MOEX hit a fresh record high.
At 1407 GMT, the rouble was little changed at 65.58 against the dollar and had gained 0.05 percent to trade at 74.96 versus the euro.
Russia's finance ministry said on Tuesday it would buy foreign currency totalling 9.7 billion roubles ($147.90 million) between Feb. 7 and March 6, scaling down daily purchases from 15.6 billion roubles in the previous period.
"This factor won't have a visible impact on the Russian currency market that will continue trading taking into external markets' attitude towards risky assets," Nordea Bank analysts said in a note.
Daily foreign currency purchases that the central bank carries out on the market on behalf of the finance ministry limit the room for the rouble's appreciation.
The finance ministry also announced details of its weekly auctions due on Wednesday where it sells OFZ treasury bonds. Demand for such bonds is seen as a gauge of investors' attitude towards Russian assets.
Russian stock indexes were up, tracing moves in the emerging market stock index MSCI that rose in light trade as major Asian bourses were closed for the Lunar New Year.
The rouble-based MOEX Russian index hit an all-time high of 2,549.62 and was 0.7 percent higher on the day at 2,541.9 points as of 1418 GMT.
The dollar-denominated RTS index rose 0.9 percent to 1,222.1 points.
Shares in oil giant Rosneft outperformed by gaining 3.9 percent to 426.8 roubles per one share after the company said it may launch share buyback this year.
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