3 Dec 2009 18:28

Ruble strengthens position on Thurs as speculative forex buying drops

MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) - The U.S. dollar and euro made downward corrections on the MICEX on Thursday as speculative buying dropped and the oil market showed mixed trends. The ruble posted gains against the bi-currency basket, winning back most of the losses suffered on Wednesday.

The dollar dropped by 15.5 kopecks in Tomorrow trading to close at 29.155 rubles/$1 while the euro went down by 18 kopecks to 44.01 rubles/EUR1.

The bi-currency basket dropped by 16 kopecks to close at 35.84 rubles.

The dollar's average weighted exchange rate on the MICEX went up by 17.14 kopecks to 29.2346 rubles/$1 in Today deals on Thursday and dropped by 7.5 kopecks to 29.2089 rubles in Tomorrow deals. Total dollar trading on the MICEX amounted to $4.080 billion with $838.3 million in Today deals and $3.242 billion in Tomorrow deals.

The euro went up by 34.57 kopecks to 44.1476 /EUR1 rubles in Today deals and 21.37 kopecks to 44.1476 rubles/EUR1 in Tomorrow deals. Total euro trading came to 264.2 million euro, of which 96.6 million euro were Today deals and 167.6 million euro were Tomorrow deals.

The overnight MIACR came to 4.34%, down 18 points for the day.