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By Bloomberg

The ruble rose to a three-week high on speculation Russian exporters are converting foreign-currency revenue as the central bank took steps to help companies access cash to refinance dollar and euro debt.

The currency climbed 2.4 percent to 52.21 a dollar by 12:22 p.m. in Moscow, the strongest level since Dec. 4. The dollar- denominated RTS Index of equities gained 3.4 percent. VTB Bank rallied 4.9 percent on the benchmark Micex Index after Russia’s upper house of parliament approved a 1 trillion-ruble ($19 billion) recapitalization plan for the nation’s lenders.

Russian authorities stepped up efforts to stop the run on the ruble since it plunged to a record-low 80.10 on Dec. 16, including asking exporters such as OAO Gazprom and OAO Rosneft to switch some of their revenue into the local currency. The Bank of Russia yesterday said it would make it easier for banks to access the foreign-currency funding they need as companies locked out of overseas debt markets by sanctions over Ukraine seek loans to refinance $120 billion of debt next year.

“Last week’s panic is calming down following the central bank’s measures to provide foreign-currency liquidity,” Vitaly Isakov, a money manager at Otkritie Asset Management in Moscow, said by e-mail. Demand for rubles is also increasing because “exporters have started selling foreign currencies,” he said.

The Bank of Russia will offer banks four-week and one-year funding in dollars and euros, backed by foreign-currency loans to large exporters, according to a statement yesterday.

Exporter Sales

The announcement came a day after the government asked Gazprom, Rosneft, OAO Alrosa, OAO Zarubezhneft and OAO Kristall to reduce their foreign-currency holdings by March 1 to levels no higher than on Oct. 1. The ruble, on course for its first weekly appreciation in a month, also got a boost this week from year-end tax payment deadlines, which typically fuel demand for the currency.

VTB Bank rallied to the highest level since April 2012 and OAO Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, climbed 1.5 percent in its second day of gains. The government is doing everything it can to provide funding to VTB through its National Wellbeing Fund before year-end, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said today. VTB has requested 250 billion rubles of state support.

Russia is seeking to avert a banking crisis after bailing out National Bank Trust, the country’s 15th-biggest based on retail deposits, this week. Lawmakers rushed legislation through parliament allowing the Deposit Insurance Agency to buy stakes in banks before they face bankruptcy proceedings to keep the system stable.

Companies in the world’s largest energy exporter have struggled to raise financing abroad after U.S. and European Union sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine and a slump in oil prices curbed access to capital markets and pushed the economy to the verge of a recession.