Russian rouble stable with higher oil and demand for bonds

MOSCOW: The Russian rouble was stable against the dollar on Thursday, held steady by higher oil prices and increasing foreign interest in the country's treasury bonds.

The rouble hit a two-week high against the dollar on Wednesday after the finance ministry said it had sold $1.40 billion in OFZ government bonds, demand for which is a gauge of market sentiment towards Russian assets.

At 0720 GMT on Thursday, the rouble was 0.1 percent weaker against the dollar at 65.47 and was stable to trade at 74.09 versus the euro.

The central bank said this month that foreign investors had increased their holdings of OFZ bonds in February, as well as in Russian Eurobonds.

Konstantin Vyshkovsky, head of the finance ministry's state debt department, told Reuters on Wednesday that more than half of demand for OFZ bonds at two auctions this week came from investors abroad.

"We believe that RUB also benefited from solid foreign supply for the OFZ auctions yesterday," VTB Capital said in a note.

Prices for Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, hit a four-month high of $67.84 per barrel on Thursday, lifted by OPEC-led supply cuts and U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and Iran.

Analysts say the threat of new sanctions against Moscow has thwarted the rouble's firming potential but a lack of any developments on this front means the currency has so far been spared.

"The threat of sanctions hangs over Russia like the sword of Damocles, but in the absence of new details on this, we do not see factors that will contribute to significant weakening of the Russian currency in March," Saint Petersburg Bank said in a note.

Russian stock indexes were stable.

The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.1 percent at 1188.06 points, while the rouble-based MOEX Russian index also dipped slightly to 2469.35 points.