MOSCOW, June 6 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble slightly

strengthened against the U.S. dollar on Thursday.

By 0717 GMT, the rouble was 0.14% higher at

88.64 to the dollar after trading in a range of 88.485 to

88.818.

Against the euro, the rouble rose 0.1%

to 96.43 and gained 0.15% to 12.20 against the yuan

.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's

main export, rose 0.7% to $78.92 a barrel.

Russian stock indexes fell. The dollar-denominated RTS index

was down 0.39% to 1,135.95. The rouble-based MOEX

Russian index lost 0.49% to 3,196.46.

($1 = 88.6425 roubles)

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)