Russian rouble slips against China's yuan amid weak forex sales

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble weakened against China's yuan, reflecting weak sales of the Chinese currency by exporting companies, but strengthened slightly against the U.S. dollar on Friday.

The rouble RUB= was up 0.5% at 101.70 against the dollar by 0915 GMT, over-the-counter market data showed. The rouble weakened 0.6% to 13.60 against China's yuan in trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX).

The yuan has become the most traded foreign currency in Russia due to Western sanctions.

"The market is generally optimistic about the rouble but corporations are holding onto the foreign currency," said a dealer from a large Russian bank, who declined to be identified.

"They have a reduced mandatory forex sale limit, tax payments are still a long way off, and there is a desire to sell the foreign currency at a higher price, but later," the dealer added.

One-day rouble/dollar futures, which trade on MOEX and are a guide for the over-the-counter exchange rate, were up 0.2% at 102.65. The Russian central bank set the official exchange rate at 102.29.

Sanctions on MOEX and its clearing agent, the National Clearing Centre (NCC), led to varying prices and spreads as trading in dollars and euros shifted to the over-the-counter market in June 2024.

(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

((gleb.bryanski@thomsonreuters.com;))