MOSCOW: The Russian rouble continued to recover on Thursday against a backdrop of improving global risk appetite, while Russian stocks lost ground following a rally the previous day, amid a softening of the oil price.
At 0812 GMT the rouble had gained 0.6 percent against the dollar to 32.22, and 0.3 against the euro to 40.46, while gaining 0.5 percent against the euro-dollar currency basket to 35.93.
The Russian currency has rebounded in recent days after hitting a 3-year low of 34.12 against the dollar on Monday.
It has been helped by a recovery in the oil price - the key driver of Russia's export revenues - although Brent weakened slightly on Thursday morning, falling back towards $100 per barrel.
"The rouble is continuing to strengthen, but the pace could slow down - on the market there are no longer big long currency positions (to cut)," said Iskander Akbergenov, a trader at Nordea bank, who expected that the rouble would settle close to 35.80 against the euro-dollar basket.
In a research note on Thursday, analysts at ING said that "for now chances of a further movement down remain, because the tax period is only ahead of us."
From the middle of the month, major Russian exporters must pay monthly taxes, requiring them to sell hard currency to raise roubles.
In contrast to the continuing rouble recovery, Russian stocks lost ground on Thursday, after a rally the previous day. Analysts said that markets are awaiting remarks by US Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke that may point to additional monetary stimulus that would boost global markets.
At 0812 GMT the rouble-denominated MICEX index was down 0.8 percent to 1,303.3 points, while the dollar-based RTS index fell 0.2 percent to 1,275.3.
This follows gains of 1.3 percent in MICEX and 2.5 percent in the RTS on Wednesday.
"There's a lack of commitment after the strong bounce that we saw yesterday," said Tom Mundy, chief equity strategist at Otkritie brokerage.
"The market is still very uncertain. It's a little less pessimistic than it was this time last week, but there are not a huge amount of drivers."
Western European stock markets extended gains on Thursday as the appetite for risk assets improved on signs Europe will find a way to deal with Spain's banking crisis.
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