"If the situation develops in line with the baseline forecast, the Bank of Russia holds open the prospect of further key rate rises at its upcoming meetings"
A trading frenzy by retail investors on online forums such as Reddit's WallStreetBets in the United States sent some stocks, including GameStop, to meteoric gains earlier this year. That fuelled a copycat trading boom in Europe, raising concerns about so-called "meme stocks" in Russia.
Rouble gained 0.4% to 74.88 against the dollar after a three-day weekend, heading towards its strongest level since March 22 of 74.19 touched last week.
The rouble is seen returning to the 74-75 range against the dollar this week, Locko Invest said in a note.
The central bank, which had been widely expected to raise rates to rein in high inflation due to the rouble's weakness, hiked it by a bigger-than-expected 50 basis points to 5%.
"It creates room for the undervalued rouble to rebound as heightened geopolitical risks are pared back in the near-term," said MUFG Bank in a note.
Rouble was 0.4% stronger against the dollar at 77.09, moving away from its weakest level since Nov. 5 of 78.0450, which it touched last week.
The rouble decoupled recently from moves in other emerging markets as well as the price of crude oil, Russia's key export, as it was hammered by fears about the situation in Ukraine.
Annual inflation, which stood at 5.7% in February, was expected to slow down in April, the central bank said, thanks to the base effect and the diminishing impact of the weak rouble on prices.
It was increasingly likely that inflation would be close to the upper end of the bank's 3.7-4.2% forecast range by the end of 2021, the central bank said.
Monetary policy, which is currently soft with the key rate at a historic low of 4.25%, would become neutral as soon as the economy returns to its potential.
He added that inflationary expectations had not anchored yet. The central bank has said it expects inflation to peak at around 5.5% in February-March, above the 4% target.