Ruble Gains Third Day on Rising Oil, Draghi Support for Bonds

The ruble strengthened for a third day as oil gained and investors bet Europe’s debt crisis will be contained, stoking appetite for riskier assets.

Russia’s currency advanced 1.1 percent to 31.9380 at 6 p.m. in Moscow. The ruble gained 1 percent versus the euro at 40.3050, leaving it 1 percent higher against the central bank’s target euro-dollar basket. Non-deliverable forwards showed the ruble at 32.3915 per dollar in three months.

Oil rose for a second day in New York as ECB President Mario Draghi said policy makers agreed to an unlimited bond- purchase program to lower borrowing costs. Brent crude rose 1.4 percent to $114.73. Oil and natural gas account for about 50 percent of Russia’s state revenue.

“The purchase of state bonds by the regulator should offer support for the EU debt market and as a result for the Russian market,” Alexey Egorov, an analyst at Nomos Bank in Moscow, said by e-mail. “In near future we may count on the beginning of a recovery trend.”

The extra yield investors demand to own Russia’s dollar bonds over U.S. Treasuries fell 11 basis points to 206, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global Index. An index of five-year government bond yields compiled by the Micex fell eight basis points to 7.526 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lyubov Pronina in London at lpronina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net