LONDON: The Russian ruble firmed on Friday, pushing back past the level of 80 to the US dollar, helped by higher oil prices but still hampered by reduced foreign currency supply and the latest Western sanctions, according to Reuters. By 11:03 a.m. Saudi time, the ruble was 0.4 percent stronger against the dollar at 79.93, and had gained 0.4 percent to trade at 86.22 versus the euro. It had firmed 0.3 percent against the yuan to 11.37. Limited activity by exporters in terms of foreign currency sales has seen the ruble weaken from about 76 to the dollar in the last week. Analysts do not expect the ruble to fall much further in light of approaching month-end tax payments, which usually lead exporters to convert foreign currency revenues to meet local liabilities. Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, was up 0.6 percent at $76.34 a barrel. On Friday, the G7 said it was imposing more sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine and the UK separately targeted companies linked to the theft of Ukrainian grain and those involved in the shipment of Russian energy. Russian stock indexes were lower. “New sanctions restrictions in the run-up to the weekend could limit purchases on Friday,” said Alor Broker in a note. The dollar-denominated Russia Trading System Index was down 0.3 percent at 1,030.6 points. The ruble-based Moscow Exchange Russia Index was 0.7 percent lower at 2,615.4 points.