moscow feb 3 reuters  the rouble weakened on thursday after paring recent heavy losses for five days in a row while stock indexes dipped with investors keeping an eye on tensions between moscow and the west that led to a major selloff in january at 0701 gmt the rouble eased 06 to 7646 against the dollar to 7646  having on wednesday hit 7568 its strongest since jan 17 read more the rouble has moved away from a near 15month low of 804125 hit last week when it was battered by concerns that russia plans to invade neighbouring ukraine something moscow has repeatedly denied russian markets remain highly volatile and vulnerable to any headlines related to political developments versus the euro the rouble weakened 04 to 8636  the market is awaiting an announcement later in the day from the finance ministry on how it plans to replenish its hard currency reserves in the month ahead however any immediate impact on the rouble is expected to be minimal as russia last month suspended daily state fx buying on the market to ease pressure on its falling currency the rouble should receive support from a central bank rate increase that the market has factored in for feb 11 after inflation the banks main area of responsibility and which it targets at 4 climbed to 882 its highest since early 2016 brent crude oil  a global benchmark for russias main export was down 04 at 8918 a barrel hovering near its strongest since october 2014 and supporting russias current account surplus and other economic fundamentals russian stock indexes were down following gains in the past few days the dollardenominated rts index irts shed 17 to 14396 points the roublebased moex russian index imoex was 14 lower at 34950 points