MOSCOW: The Russian rouble opened stronger against the dollar on Wednesday, reflecting high oil prices and investor expectations of strong demand at the finance ministry's treasury bond auctions.
At 0720 GMT the rouble was 0.3 percent stronger against the dollar at 64.75 and had gained 0.25 percent to trade at 72.95 versus the euro.
Russia's finance ministry is set to hold two OFZ treasury bond auctions later on Wednesday. Demand for these bonds is viewed as a gauge of global market sentiment toward Russian assets.
Demand for OFZ bonds has soared this year after months of uncertainty surrounding possible new US sanctions on holdings of Russian debt. Russia's finance ministry in February scrapped offering limits for the bonds, a quarter of which are held by foreign investors.
In recent days the rouble been supported by high oil prices, which hit five-month highs this week.
"The situation overall has remained positive. Oil prices are high and there could be a high volume of OFZ bonds sold today," a trader at a large Russian bank told Reuters.
Analysts have said that the effects of high oil prices on the rouble would be moderate, given lingering uncertainty surrounding possible new sanctions against Moscow and general investor sentiment toward emerging markets.
The European Central Bank is expected to keep policy on hold later on Wednesday, waiting to evaluate whether its most recent stimulus is enough to stop a decline in sentiment. The US Federal Reserve will publish the minutes of its latest policy meeting at 1800 GMT. Russian stock indexes were stable.
The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.2 percent at 1,250.88 points.
The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was unchanged at 2,570.57 points.
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