Russian rouble steadies after hitting more than six-month high

MOSCOW: The Russian rouble stabilised on Tuesday, consolidating sharp gains made in the previous session when the currency soared to a more than six-month high, buoyed by increased state forex sales. At 0742 GMT, the rouble was unchanged against the dollar at 87.58, not far from 87.3725, its strongest point since June 30.

It had gained 0.3% to trade at 95.69 versus the euro and firmed 0.1% against the yuan to 12.13 . State FX sales, carried out by the central bank, are set to amount to the equivalent of 16.7 billion roubles ($190.7 million) of foreign currency a day until the end of January, after the finance ministry switched to making sales from purchases after December oil and gas revenue was lower than expected.

That, along with existing capital controls obliging exporters to convert foreign currency revenues, is supporting the rouble. "For now we continue to expect rouble strengthening, possibly with the (rouble-dollar) pair moving towards the stronger hurdle of 85," said Alor Broker's Alexei Antonov. "But there may be a light correction before this movement."

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was down 0.2% at $78.00 a barrel. Russian stock indexes were lower.

The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.6% to 1,138.8 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.6% lower at 3,166.4 points.