Jan 18 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble opened up slightly on Thursday around the 88 to the dollar mark, held up by the traditional low demand for foreign exchange among Russian importers at the start of the year.
At 0730 GMT the rouble was 0.35% stronger against the dollar at 88.63 and had gained 0.13% to trade at 96.62 versus the euro. It had shed 0.25% against the yuan to 12.25.
In a note, head of investment consulting at Alor Broker, Alexei Antonov, said the rouble may depreciate towards 90 to the dollar in the near future, but that a seasonal dip in demand for FX, as well as the central bank's interventions, were keeping it buoyed for now.
State foreign exchange sales, carried out by the central bank, are set to amount to the equivalent of 16.7 billion roubles ($190.7 million) of foreign currency a day until the end of January, after the finance ministry switched from making purchases to making sales after December oil and gas revenue was lower than expected.
That, along with existing capital controls obliging exporters to convert foreign currency revenues, is supporting the rouble.
Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was up 0.60% at $78.34 a barrel.
Russian stock indexes were up slightly. The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.26% to 1,132 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.11% higher at 3,188 points.
For Russian equities guide see
For Russian treasury bonds see (Reporting by Felix Light; Editing by Alex Richardson)
