(Reuters) – The Russian ruble opened flat on Friday as taxes paid by exporters at the end of the month helped the ruble hover near the benchmark 60 level against the dollar.
The Russian currency remains unchanged against the US dollar at 60. 13 DOWN 0.3% against EUR at 0723 GMT to 59.74.
The ruble is the world’s best-performing currency this year, helped by emergency capital controls introduced by central banks to stem a massive sell-off.
Month-end taxes paid to the Ministry of Finance by Russian exporters, which typically convert foreign currency earnings into rubles, supported the rouble this week, analysts said.
Russian stock indexes were volatile, with the dollar-denominated RTS index down 0.5% to 1 in the first few minutes of Moscow trading, 177 .1 point. The ruble-based MOEX Russia index was flat at 2, 13.2 points.
Few drivers are expected for the move in Russia’s currency or stocks on Friday, said Zarina Saidova, an analyst at Moscow-based Finam brokerage.
“Volumes are very low due to the holiday season. At the same time, the external backdrop is not that bad – the US and European markets are generally optimistic,” she said, adding that the market was largely at a standstill STATES Later today, they were in Jackson Hole awaiting comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
