Russian Rouble Rises 13% Against Dollar

The Russian rose on Wednesday to record 99 roubles against the dollar, after trading at 154 roubles by March 7.

The rouble gained 1.9% on the day to close at 108 per dollar and gained 0.7% against the euro to close just below 117.7.

On foreign exchanges, the rouble was bid recently at 91 per dollar and traded at 97, up more than 13% on the day.

Meantime, It is down 23% so far this year.

Russia has $117 million in payments due on Wednesday on two dollar-denominated Eurobonds.  Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday that if the payments were done in roubles, it would constitute a sovereign default if not corrected after a 30-day grace period.

"Because of the restrictions of the Central Bank of Russia the rouble is still relatively non convertible, there's a lot of question marks about what foreigners can do with it. I wouldn't trust any rally in the rouble to be persistent," said Rachel Ziemba, founder of Ziemba Insights.