Jan 16 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble advanced against the U.S. dollar in early morning trading in Moscow on Monday, supported by interventions by the finance ministry and large exporters converting their foreign currency earnings.
At 0705 GMT, the rouble was 0.6% stronger against the dollar at 68.39. Against the euro, the rouble was up 0.3% to 73.93.
The Russian finance ministry resumed foreign currency interventions for the first time in almost a year last Friday, under plans to sell 54.5 billion roubles ($793 million) of yuan from its international reserves over the next few weeks.
The rouble was trading up 0.2% against the Chinese yuan at 10.17 in Moscow.
The currency was also helped by Russian exporters converting their foreign currency earnings into roubles to meet tax liabilities, analysts said.
"The market has reacted positively to the finance ministry's plans," analysts at Otkritie bank wrote in a research note on Monday.
"Also in January exporters have less time to convert external earnings to pay taxes," due to extended start-of-year public holidays, they noted. "This will provide additional shelter for the currency and should see the rouble strengthen - or remain stable - until the end of the month," the analysts added.
Russian stock indexes were up slightly at the start of trading.
The dollar-denominated RTS index advanced 0.9% to 1,019.1 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.5% higher at 2,210.5 points.
For Russian equities guide see
For Russian treasury bonds see (Reporting by Jake Cordell; Editing by Toby Chopra)
