Speculators increased their ruble long position to 14,538 futures in the week ending on June 14, from 8,086 contracts a week earlier, according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Over the last weeks, the ruble exchange rate has been hovering between 63 and 66 per dollar. According to an outlook by Sberbank CIB, the Russian currency is expected to strengthen in the coming days. One of the reasons is decreasing risks of a Brexit.
The referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union will take place on June 23.
"Though uncertainty remains, the probability of Brexit went down significantly, oil is heading toward fifty-plus again, other emerging-market currencies are feeling good, so the ruble follows suit," Denis Korshilov, head of fixed-income, currency and commodities at Citigroup Inc.’s Russian unit in Moscow, told Bloomberg.
Another reason is a rebound in crude prices.
On June 8, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the ruble exchange rate was no more directly bound to oil prices.
The Russian economy suffered a setback in 2014, as the ruble lost about half of its value against the US dollar amid low global oil prices and Western economic sanctions imposed against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.
