OREANDA-NEWS. On Friday, trading activity visibly declined, with MICEX reporting only USD 3.3bn of turnover. Amid rather thin liquidity RUB was trading on its own trajectory, paying little attention to the oil market. In the morning, USDRUB approached 65.00, but failed to go higher, consolidating near 64.80 for most of the session. In the evening, when liquidity almost entirely faded away, RUB suddenly made an attempt to recover, testing 64.40 against USD. However, the momentum was short-lived and by the close RUB returned to morning levels, edging down at 64.95 (-0.4%). Meantime, during the first half of the session, Brent was trading choppily, persistently trying to move above the previous close of USD 49.2/bbl. However, in the evening the downward trend finally prevailed, with Brent sliding 0.4% to USD 49/bbl by the close.

EM currencies closed mixed on Friday, so RUB was trading in line with the general trend. Asian currencies returned into negative territory, with SGD and KRW falling 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively. TRY also traded heavily, losing 0.5% during the day. At the same time, BRL outperformed, hiking 1.1%, followed by ILS, which added 0.4%.