Russian rouble, stocks steady in face of global sell-off By Reuters

(Reuters) – The Russian rouble was flat in Wednesday trading, while stocks gained ground, shielded from the widespread global sell-off of recent days by Moscow’s capital controls.

At 1010 GMT, the rouble was unchanged against the dollar at 56.58 and had gained 0.1% to trade at 59.1 against the euro.

The currency remains near multi-year highs thanks to Russia’s surging current account surplus and capital controls – recently softened – that Moscow introduced after the imposition of Western sanctions in a bid to stop a run on the rouble.

Insulated from the turmoil on global markets, Russian stock indexes advanced in trading in Moscow.

The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.56% to 1,280.3 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.52% higher at 2,301.7 points.

Russia’s political and business elite descended on St. Petersburg on Wednesday for Russia’s annual economic forum.

Once a symbol of the Kremlin’s openness to international investment, this year’s conference features panels addressing sanctions and a lack of Western businesses.

Hundreds of companies have pulled out of Russia in response to Moscow sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it calls a “special military operation”.

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