Credit: REUTERS/SERGEI KARPUKHINAdds detail, updates prices
MOSCOW, May 23 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble fell on Thursday, tracking slipping oil prices and shrugging off end-of-month tax payments and strong foreign demand for treasury bonds on the local market.
At 1431 GMT, the rouble was 0.8% weaker against the dollar at 64.89 RUBUTSTN=MCX while it lost 0.6% against the euro at 71.80 EURRUBTN=MCX.
Oil prices dropped on Thursday, extending falls from the previous session as trade tensions, including between the United States and China, dampened the demand outlook.
Brent crude oil LCOc1, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was down 4.3% at $67.94 a barrel.
The weakening against the dollar reversed much of Wednesday's gains made after Russia's finance ministry sold $1.44 billion in rouble-denominated OFZ bonds which have received significant foreign demand this year.
Anastasia Sosnova, an analyst at Freedom Finance, said the rouble had lost the support of high oil prices and strong demand for OFZ bonds that it had received in recent months.
"If Brent crude does not continue its fall, the rouble will most likely remain is the range of 64-65 per dollar in the near future," Sosnova said in a note. The rouble also tracked other emerging market currencies pressured by China's warning of difficult times ahead due to its trade dispute with the United States.
Russian stock indexes were down.
The dollar-denominated RTS index .IRTS was down 1.7% to 1,271.10 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index .IMOEX was 0.8% lower at 2,617.77 points.
For Russian equities guide see RU/EQUITY
For Russian treasury bonds see 0#RUTSY=MM
(Reporting by Vladimir Abramov, Tom Balmforth and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by William Maclean)
((vladimir.abramov@thomsonreuters.com))
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