MOSCOW, May 20 (Reuters) - The rouble climbed to a more than two-month high against the dollar on Monday, supported by the Russian state's increased foreign currency sales this month and capital controls that prop up the Russian currency.
By 1146 GMT, the rouble was 0.4% higher at 90.55 to the dollar, earlier reaching 90.3875, its strongest point since March 7.
Against the euro, the rouble gained 0.3% to 98.40 and gained 0.7% to 12.49 against the yuan .
Capital controls introduced by presidential decree in October 2023 require dozens of undisclosed exporting firms to deposit a high percentage of foreign currency earnings with Russian banks and then sell most of those proceeds on the domestic market. The controls were extended by a year at the end of April.
The state's overall forex sales were sharply increased to 6.3 billion roubles ($69.57 million) a day in May from 0.6 billion roubles a day in the previous month, further buttressing the Russian currency.
Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, fell 0.2% to $83.79 a barrel.
Russian stock indexes were mixed. The dollar-denominated RTS index rose 0.1% to 1,185.0. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index fell 0.5% to 3,463.9. ($1 = 90.5550 roubles) (Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar)
