(Reuters) – The Russian rouble gained strength in offshore trading on Tuesday, as the market closed due to a holiday. One analyst cited the rise because of the Western ban against Russian oil imports.

The Russian ruble has fallen 40% against the US dollar in the past year. This was exacerbated by Russia’s incursion into Ukraine on February 24th, which led to sweeping international sanctions.

Investors are finding it harder to trade Russian assets because of the sanctions on Russia and its companies, creditors, key people, and countermeasures from Moscow.

The rouble closed at 131.8 GMT on Monday, nearly 3% higher than the closing price of 135.5 GMT.

It was 15 roubles wide, which indicates a highly liquid market.

Franziska Palmas (Capital Economics markets economist) said, “The bounce” in the rouble is because some relief exists that something similar to an embargo against Russian oil might not be as assured or as probable as it appeared yesterday.”

The trading conditions for Russian assets are so disturbed that it is very difficult to determine if the prices reflect expectations or actual trading.

On Monday, a third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine failed to produce any significant breakthroughs.

The Ukrainian negotiator stated that although there had been some small improvements in terms of logistics to evacuate civilians during the talks, they were largely the same. Russian negotiator stated that the talks were difficult.

The Moscow Exchange will reopen currency trading on Wednesday after it was closed on Friday. The central bank had ordered that stock trading be restricted for the last week.

Russia will not be included in JPMorgan’s fixed income indexes starting March 31st, the bank announced Monday. This follows rival index providers who had previously excluded Russian securities following Moscow’s invasion.

A Russian investment company that owned Gazprom’s bond of $1.3 billion that was due to mature on Monday, said that it received its full payment in U.S. Dollars. Investors were uncertain if they would get paid, after Russia put restrictions in place on the payment of foreigners that held their securities due to West-imposed sanctions.