(Reuters) -The Russian rouble closed on Wednesday at its strongest this month in opposition to the greenback each in Moscow and offshore exchanges after President Vladimir Putin mentioned Russia would begin promoting its gasoline to “unfriendly” international locations in roubles.

The rouble ended under 100 per greenback, nonetheless down over 22% this yr as Russia faces strict sanctions globally, triggered by its invasion of Ukraine late final month.

European gasoline costs soared after Putin’s shock announcement, on issues the transfer would exacerbate the area’s power crunch.

“It appears to be an effort by the Russian authorities to use stress on Western international locations by forcing international patrons of Russian gasoline to make use of roubles, with the additional advantage of supporting the worth of the forex,” mentioned Liam Peach, Rising Europe economist at Capital Economics in a shopper notice.

The rouble gained 6% to shut at 97.7375 per greenback in Moscow after touching 94.9875, its strongest since March 2. It closed up 8.8% at 96.5 on the EBS platform. Each closing costs have been the strongest since February.

In opposition to the euro, the rouble rose 6% to 108.01 in Moscow.

Buying and selling in OFZ bonds resumed this week, and the Financial institution of Russia introduced some inventory market buying and selling would resume on March 24 after a close to month-long hiatus, with 33 securities included into the benchmark IMOEX index set to be traded on the Moscow Alternate for a restricted time frame and with brief promoting banned.

Thus far, the central financial institution has not disclosed the dimensions of its interventions on the OFZ market that helped stabilise costs and offered additional liquidity to the monetary system.

Yields on benchmark 10-year OFZ bonds, which transfer inversely to their costs, closed at 13.85% on Wednesday after hitting a document excessive of 19.74% on Monday.

The benchmark yielded 8.42% on the finish of 2021.

COUPON PAYMENT

Russia appeared to have averted default on international debt by making a coupon cost in {dollars} on a international bond maturing in 2029. A bondholder mentioned the cost had been acquired.

However Russian holders of home company Eurobonds face delays in receiving funds settled by way of worldwide brokers, as transactions get snarled by sanctions, Russia’s Nationwide Settlement Depository (NSD), firms and analysts mentioned.

Demand for rouble liquidity has declined because the central financial institution offered 0.8 trillion roubles ($7.7 billion) at a one-day “fine-tuning” repo public sale on Wednesday, decrease than in earlier days.

“Demand at in a single day repo auctions is falling quick,” Veles Capital brokerage mentioned in a notice, explaining that regardless that banks’ liquidity ranges have fallen to their lowest since June final yr, lenders are repaying earlier repo money owed to the central financial institution.