BLBG:Ruble Climbs as Crude Oil Advances, Taxes Boost Demand
The ruble climbed for the second day this week as crude advanced, boosting the outlook for the world’s biggest energy exporter, and companies bought the currency for tax payments.
The ruble added 0.6 percent to 31.1950 versus the dollar by 11:57 a.m. in Moscow, paring yeterday’s 1.3 percent drop, the most in two months. The currency was up 0.1 percent against the euro at 40.2075 and increased 0.3 percent against the central bank’s euro-dollar basket. Non-deliverable forwards showed the ruble at 31.6550 per dollar in three months.
Crude in New York gained 0.4 percent to $90.33 a barrel. Oil and natural gas contribute about 50 percent of Russia’s government revenue. Russian companies are due to pay about 180 billion rubles ($5.8 billion) in profit tax tomorrow, Alexei Egorov, an analyst with Moscow-based OAO Nomos Bank, said by e- mail.
“Rising oil and growth in demand for ruble liquidity ahead of the profit tax payment helped ruble appreciation,” Egorov said. “The tendency for the recovery of the national currency may sustain.”
The extra yield investors demand to own Russia’s dollar bonds over U.S. Treasuries fell three basis points to 214, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global Index. An index of five-year government bond yields compiled by the Micex rose six basis points to 7.629 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Nicholson in Moscow at anicholson6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net
