Monday, 16 November 2015 18:32
MOSCOW: The Russian rouble rose on Monday, tracking a higher oil price which also helped Russian share indexes overcome global market jitters caused by Friday’s Paris attacks.
At 0800 GMT, the rouble was 0.7 percent stronger against the dollar at 66.34 and had gained 0.6 percent to 71.37 versus the euro.
Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, was up 0.6 percent at $ 44.7 a barrel, which traders said reflected heightened risks in the Middle East after Friday’s attacks in Paris led France to step up its bombing attacks on Islamic State in Syria.
BCS analyst Mark Bradford said in a note that while the Paris attacks were encouraging a flight to low-risk assets, this was being offset by markets lowering their expectations of a rate increase by the U.S. Federal Reserve next month after relatively weak European and U.S. macroeconomic data on Friday.
Russian shares held their ground in rouble terms and were up in dollar terms on Monday, helped by the stronger oil price and rouble and bucking the trend on Asian markets which have fallen after the Paris attacks.
The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.7 percent to 821 points, while the rouble-based MICEX was flat at 1,729 points.
