BS: Ruble Rises to 28-Month High Versus Dollar on Oil, Low Rates
By Denis Maternovsky
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- The ruble gained for a fourth day against the dollar, rising to a 28-month high versus the U.S. currency, as the Federal Reserve pledged to keep rates low to support growth, sending oil above $113 a barrel.
The Russian currency added 0.8 percent to 27.4900 per dollar by 10:42 a.m. in Moscow trading, heading for its strongest closing level since Dec. 18, 2008. Against the euro the ruble weakened 0.5 percent to 40.8176.
Crude, Russia’s chief export earner, gained as much as 0.8 percent to $113.70 a barrel in New York, the highest since Sept. 22, 2008, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday renewed his pledge to stimulate growth with low interest rates.
Moves against the dollar and the euro left the ruble at 33.4872, the strongest since March 10, against the central bank’s target currency basket, which it uses to manage swings that hurt Russian exporters. The basket is calculated by multiplying the dollar’s rate to the ruble by 0.55, the euro to ruble rate by 0.45, then adding them together.
-- Editors: Alexander Nicholson, Linda Shen
To contact the reporters 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