BLBG:Ruble Gains for Fourth Day Against Dollar on Rates, Higher Oil
The ruble gained for a fourth day against the dollar, heading for its first weekly increase in three weeks, after Bank Rossii unexpectedly cut refinancing rate and oil, Russia’s biggest export, advanced.
The Russian currency added 0.9 percent to 31.0950 by 12:03 p.m. in Moscow, heading for its strongest level since Dec. 5. The ruble added 0.6 percent to 40.71 versus the euro, poised for its strongest closing level since August 5. That put it at 35.4312 against the central bank’s target dollar-euro basket, a third day of advances.
Russia’s central bank cut the refinancing rate to 8 percent from 8.25 percent today after inflation fell to 6.4 percent as of Dec. 19 from a year earlier, heading for its lowest annual growth in two decades. Oil futures rose as much as 0.6 percent to $99.78 a barrel after adding 0.9 percent yesterday after U.S. initial jobless claims dropped to the lowest level since April 2008.
Investors pared bets the Russian currency will weaken further, with non-deliverable forwards showing the ruble at 31.5612 per dollar in three months, compared with expectations of 31.7990 per dollar yesterday. The contracts are a guide to expectations of currency movements as they allow foreign investors and companies to fix the exchange rate at a particular level in the future.
Russia’s dollar-denominated Eurobond due in 2020 was little changed, leaving the yield steady at 4.598 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net
