Rouble gains as officials step up verbal support

20/12/2014 08:04 AST

Russia’s rouble strengthened on Friday after Finance Minister Anton Siluanov confirmed his ministry had sold foreign currency, and on expectations that exporters will increase dollar sales.

At 1110 GMT, the rouble was around 2.2 per cent stronger at 60.13 to the dollar, and had gained 2.6 per cent to trade at 73.77 to the euro.

The rouble has seen intense selling pressure this week, and at one stage was down about 20 per cent against the dollar, putting at risk the stability on which President Vladimir Putin has built his popularity.

The currency was on track to end the week over 2 percent lower, though the market remains volatile amid thin trading volumes.

Analysts at Rosbank said the rouble could stabilise at around 60 to 62 per dollar on what they called the central bank’s conservative approach to rouble liquidity, and the expansion of its forex repo mechanism.

Government pressure on exporters not to hoard their foreign exchange revenues is seen as another positive for the rouble, which is now down some 45 percent against the dollar this year.

The end-of-month tax period begins in earnest next week, when Russian exporters have to convert their overseas earnings into roubles to pay taxes to the state budget.

Siluanov said early on Friday that the rouble would definitely firm at the beginning of next year. His verbal interventions are seen as part of government efforts to support the Russian currency.

Analysts also said that foreign-currency buying by ordinary Russians, which had applied pressure to the exchange rate in recent days, was likely to fade as the rouble firms.

“The frenzy of retail FX buying is receding but will likely maintain pressure on the rouble going into the weekend,” analysts at Sberbank CIB investment bank said in a note.

So far this year, the central bank has spent over $80 billion defending the currency, which has been hit by a collapse in oil prices, as well as by Western sanctions over Ukraine, which have dented investors’ appetite for Russian risk.

The bank has, however, scaled back its support for the rouble since last month, when it floated the currency.

Russia’s stock market suffered new falls on Friday, bucking generally bullish sentiment on global markets.

The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 1.5 per cent to 753 points, while its rouble-based peer MICEX traded 2.3 per cent lower at 1,442 points. Both indexes were on track to end the week lower.

The business conglomerate Sistema again led the best-performing stocks, rising by over 15 percent a day after its share price more than doubled.

Appetite for Sistema has been boosted by the release of its chairman from house arrest and hopes that a criminal investigation into both the company and its chairman will be dropped.

Agencies