The ruble pared losses and gained against the dollar after the International Monetary Fund said European authorities were planning to recapitalize the banking industry and Russian Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said there were grounds for the currency to strengthen. The ruble strengthened 0.4 percent to 32.584 per dollar at 2:55 p.m. in Moscow, its first gain since Sept. 27. The Russian currency was 0.2 percent weaker at 43.539 per euro, leaving it up 0.1 percent at 37.52 against the central bank’s target dollar-euro basket. European Union authorities are working on a plan to bring more capital to Europe’s banks, Antonio Borges, the IMF’s European department head, said today in Brussels. An effort to aid banks may help revive demand for Russia’s commodity exports in the euro area. Crude futures climbed three percent to $77.96 a barrel in New York. “We’re still looking at macro factors pushing the ruble around,” Peter Rosenstreich, chief currency analyst at Swissquote Bank SA in Geneva, said by e-mail. Borges’s comments were an “excuse” for higher risk appetite, he said. There are “grounds” for the ruble to rally 8.6 percent to 30 per dollar, Klepach told reporters in Moscow today. “I think that’s credible,” Rosenstreich said. “The trend is toward tightening dynamics with oil, and I’m not sure oil will weaken much further.” Investors pared bets the ruble will depreciate further, with non-deliverable forwards showing the currency at 33.1477 per dollar in three months, compared with 33.2968 yesterday. NDFs provide a guide to expectations of currency movements and interest-rate differentials. Russia’s dollar Eurobond due 2018 rose, pushing the yield down five basis points to 4.925 percent. The yield on Russia’s sovereign dollar bonds due in 2020 declined 11 basis points to 5.366 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Jordan in Moscow at jjordan22@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net

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