Russian rouble weakens against yuan amid liquidity shortage

The Russian rouble weakened against China's yuan on Monday amid continued liquidity shortage in the market but strengthened slightly against the US dollar on higher oil prices.

At 0730 GMT, the rouble was down almost 3 per cent at 12.59 against yuan and up 0.2 per cent to 90.20 against the dollar, LSEG data showed.

The rouble weakened 0.4 per cent against the yuan in trade on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The rouble fell on Sept. 4 to its lowest level against the yuan since April 19 after the new outlook for forex interventions suggested that e central bank would slash its sales of the Chinese currency to 0.2 billion per day from Sept. 6 from 7.28 billion per day previously.

Major banks said on September 5 that there was a liquidity shortage in the yuan market.

Trading in major currencies in Russia has shifted to the over-the-counter (OTC) market, obscuring price data, since Western sanctions on the Moscow Exchange and its clearing agent, the National Clearing Centre, were introduced on June 12.

One-day rouble-dollar futures, which trade on the Moscow Exchange and are a guide for OTC market rates, were flat at 89.93. The central bank's official exchange rate, which it calculates using OTC data, was set at 89.82 to the dollar.

The rouble was flat at 100.08 against the euro, LSEG data showed.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was up 1.4 per cent at $72.07 as a potential hurricane system approached the US Gulf Coast, and as markets recovered from a selloff following weaker-than-expected US jobs data.