Ruble Edges Higher

On Monday, the Russian ruble edged up against the dollar, gaining some ground after experiencing its biggest weekly decline since early July due to concerns about how sanctions on oil and gas would affect Russia’s export earnings.

Following an oil embargo and price cap implementation, the ruble lost about 8% last week. It is currently down 12.5% this month. According to the finance ministry, the recent decline was caused by recovering imports.

The ruble was 0.8% stronger against the dollar at 69.67. It strengthened 0.2% against the yuan to 9.91 and was up 2.3% against the Euro at 73.91.

Otkritie Research stated that trading activity would likely be light on Monday due to the ruble’s potential to strengthen during the ongoing month-end tax period when Russian exporters typically convert foreign exchange revenue to pay local liabilities.

Supported by capital controls and lower imports, the ruble has remained one of the top-performing major currencies against the dollar this year. Still, Brazil’s real has supplanted it in the past week.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for the country’s primary export, rose 3.7% to $84.0 a barrel. Hence, Russian equities received some support.

End of The Year Market Movements

In the year’s final week, investors will likely rebalance their portfolios, which could cause the market to move up or down.

Shares increased in light post-Christmas holiday trading on Monday in Asia, where many markets did not operate.

The Kospi in Seoul increased by 0.21% to 2,328.54. Moreover, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo increased by 0.6% to 26,393.32. The SET in Bangkok increased 0.6%, and the Shanghai Composite index increased 0.51% to 3,061.93. They predicted that the Euro would decline by 10%, hitting a 20-year low of $0.95. The price of one Euro is $1.05.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has provided documentation of the ongoing progress on the development of a digital euro in a second progress report that details design and distribution options recently approved by its governing council.