"Prices are rising in dollar terms, but settlements are carried out in rubles as of the day the deal was struck. So dollar-denominated shares are often behind the ruble rise," Igor Pavlov of Aton brokers said.
The ruble jumped to a three-month high of 4,766 per dollar on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange on Wednesday, from 4,836 Tuesday, trading 7 percent above its all-time low of 5,130 to the dollar April 29.
Andrei Ippolitov of Olma said the market had simply livened up after a long holiday weekend.
He said traders were waiting for several Western investment funds to enter the market.
"That won't be much, but $50 to $60 million is quite a sum for us," he said.
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