MOSCOW: The Russian rouble strengthened against the yuan on Friday after receiving support from increased net sales of the Chinese currency by the state on the previous day as well as from higher prices for oil, Russia’s main export commodity.

At 0800 GMT the rouble was up 0.3% at 13.40 against the yuan at the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The rouble was down 0.3% at 95.00 against the US dollar, LSEG data showed.

Russia’s net daily sales of yuan will bounce back to an equivalent of 5.3 billion roubles ($55.9 million) from October 7, following the finance ministry’s announcement on Thursday, after hitting a historic low last month.

Low sales of yuan were one of the factors behind the rouble’s weakness in September and contributed to a yuan liquidity crunch.

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.

The sanctions also made the Chinese yuan the most traded foreign currency in Russia.

One-day rouble-dollar futures, which trade on the Moscow exchange and are a guide for OTC market rates, were down 0.4% at 94.8.

Russian rouble mostly unchanged against US dollar

The central bank’s official exchange rate, which it calculates using OTC data, was set at 95.03 to the dollar.

The rouble was up 0.14% at 104.37 against the euro, LSEG data showed.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, was up 0.7% at $78.23 as investors weighed the prospect of a wider Middle East conflict disrupting crude flows against a well-supplied global market.