MOSCOW: The Russian rouble weakened on Monday, slipping past the 71 mark against the dollar, while stock indexes climbed higher on the first day of Russia's short trading week.

At 0743 GMT, the rouble shed 0.2% to 71.09 against the dollar, heading away from its strongest level since June 2020 of 69.21 it touched last week.

The rouble eased 0.3% to 82.17 against the euro.

The US Federal Reserve's Nov. 2-3 meeting is in focus as the market is looking for clues on the timing of its first interest rate hike since December 2018 and the number of such increases.

The Fed is also widely expected to announce it will taper its $120 billion monthly bond buying program by $15 billion. Monetary tightening in the United States is likely to support the dollar, while putting pressure on the rouble.

The rouble can also see downside pressure from risk aversion as players usually tend to lower risk exposure ahead of long weekends.

The Moscow Exchange will be closed on Nov. 4 and then on Nov. 5-6.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was down 0.7% at $83.13 a barrel but this did not prevent gains on the Russian stock market.

The dollar-denominated RTS index rose 0.3% to 1,848.7 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.6% higher at 4,173.2 points, heading towards its all-time high of 4,292.68 hit in October.