MOSCOW, May 24 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble reached

its strongest mark against the dollar since late January on

Friday, supported by capital controls, state forex sales and

high interest rates as the peak of a favourable month-end tax

period approached.

By 0932 GMT, the rouble was 0.4% higher at

89.65 to the dollar, earlier reaching 89.5625, its strongest

point since Jan. 31.

Against the euro, the rouble rose 0.5%

to 97.17, earlier crossing the 97 threshold for the first time

since Feb. 5, and gained 0.5% to 12.33 against the yuan

.

The rouble tends to gain support from month-end tax payments

that usually see exporters convert foreign currency revenues

into roubles to meet local liabilities.

"The peak of the tax period is on Tuesday and the supply of

foreign currency from exporters could still increase," Bank St

Petersburg analysts said in a note.

Capital controls introduced by presidential decree in

October 2023 require dozens of undisclosed exporting firms to

deposit a high percentage of foreign currency earnings with

Russian banks and then sell most of those proceeds on the

domestic market. The controls were extended by a year at the end

of April.

The state's overall forex sales were sharply increased to

6.3 billion roubles ($70.19 million) a day in May from 0.6

billion roubles a day in the previous month, further buttressing

the Russian currency.

After three successive interest rate holds at 16%, the

central bank has adopted a more hawkish stance ahead of its next

meeting on June 7, with inflation remaining stubbornly high.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's

main export, was down 0.8% at $80.71 a barrel.

Russian stock indexes fell. The dollar-denominated RTS index

fell 0.4% to 1,185.0. The rouble-based MOEX Russian

index lost 0.8% to 3,463.9.

($1 = 89.7625 roubles)