Russia c.bank to add Canadian dollar to reserves

By Yelena Fabrichnaya

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Central Bank said on Wednesday it is preparing to invest some of its foreign exchange reserves in Canadian dollars to diversify its portfolio, which helped push the U.S. dollar to its lowest in over a year.

Moscow also continued its push for less reliance on the U.S. currency in international trade, saying on Wednesday that Brazil was interested in settling bilateral trade in roubles and real.

Russia has gradually been diversifying its $400 billion-plus reserves -- the world's third largest -- to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar.

"Technical preparations are underway for operations with Canadian dollars. Then there could be a couple of other currencies and this will be it," Russian central bank official Sergei Shvetsov said.

Such a public affirmation from a major central bank on reserve diversification gave a dollar-bearish market a perfect excuse to sell the currency further, traders said.

The U.S. dollar accelerated its earlier losses to its weakest level since August against a basket of currencies and against the euro. The dollar index fell as low as 74.399 .DXY and the euro rose to $1.5096, according to Reuters data.

The Canadian dollar rose to a one-week high versus the greenback on the comments, which were in line with previous statements from Russian officials, but came on a day of broad-based U.S. dollar weakness.

The current share of the U.S. dollar is around 47 percent, with euros accounting for 41 percent, sterling for 10 percent and yen for 2 percent.