Biggest Russian exporters reduced FX sales to $10.4 bln in Feb from $12.9 bln in Jan

MOSCOW. March 11 (Interfax) - The biggest Russian exporters reduced foreign currency sales 19.4% to $10.4 billion in February from $12.9 billion in January, the Central Bank of Russia said in a Financial Market Risks Review.

The Central Bank said the ruble weakened against the dollar in the first two-thirds of February amid a reduction in FX sales by exporters as well as sanctions expectations, but it recovered somewhat in the last third of the month and lost 1.3% of its value in February as a whole.

The average daily FX sales by exporters in February amounted to $520 million, which is a third lower than in January.

The ratio of FX sales by exporters to net revenue rose 6 pp to 94% in December - the Central Bank gives this figure with a lag of one month.

Members of the public reduced FX purchases to 90.8 billion rubles in February from 109.8 billion rubles in January. They bought foreign currencies worth 51.1 billion rubles on the market and 39.7 billion rubles via the biggest banks. Almost three-quarters of purchases were in dollars and euros.

Systemically important banks were again the largest currency sellers on the spot exchange market, increasing FX sales on the Moscow Exchange by 9.5% to 422.5 billion rubles from 385.9 billion rubles in January.

FX sales by non-financial companies, both residents and non-residents, on the exchange and OTC markets remained virtually unchanged, amounting to 557.1 billion rubles compared with 544.4 billion rubles in January.

The largest buyers of FX on the exchange were again banks other than systemically important banks, however FX purchases by these participants fell 22.5% to 361.6 billion rubles in February from 466.8 billion rubles in January.

Demand for FX from non-resident banks on the exchange and OTC markets remained consistently high at 531 billion rubles in February and 542.3 billion rubles in January.