The ruble on Thursday reduced its intraday losses and briefly moved into positive territory on forex after the announcement of the volume of the Finance Ministry’s November currency interventions. By 12:40 Moscow time, the Russian currency remained near two-week lows against the yuan, dollar, and euro, but then partially recovered its decline.
By 12:40 Moscow time, the yuan on the Moscow Exchange was worth 12.25 rubles, the dollar — 82.26 rubles, and on forex the dollar — 81.82 rubles and the euro — 92.02 rubles, reports The Moscow Times.
Earlier, the yuan rose to 12.30 rubles, and the dollar on the Moscow Exchange — to 82.70 rubles, which became two-week lows for the ruble. On forex, the dollar weakened to 82.40 rubles and then strengthened to 81.62 rubles. The euro on the same day rose to 92.82 rubles and then briefly fell to 91.75 rubles.
From November 9 to December 4, the Finance Ministry will buy foreign currency and gold under the budget rule for 312.6 billion rubles, compared with the previous volume of 279.4 billion and Reuters’ consensus forecast of 350 billion. The Central Bank, which carries out these operations on behalf of the Finance Ministry, will increase daily net purchases by almost a quarter — to 15 billion rubles, or $183 million, which corresponds to 1.2 billion Chinese yuan at the current CBR exchange rate.
Regular purchases of the Chinese currency under the budget rule remain a factor pressuring the ruble and in November will partially offset support from the inflow of export revenue from sold hydrocarbons.
The average Urals price for tax calculations in October was $101.46 per barrel after $92.08 in September. By Wednesday’s close, indicative Urals quotes were in the range of $74.58–85.39 per barrel — the lowest levels since the beginning of autumn.
Sources
