By Ira Iosebashvili

The Russian central bank cut its key interest rates by 0.5 percentage point Tuesday in an attempt to stimulate bank lending and turn back the wave of speculative capital that has flooded the ruble in recent months.

"A reduction in the difference between foreign and domestic rates will help contain the strengthening ruble," the bank said in a statement.

The reduction in the refinancing rate -- the benchmark to which commercial banks tie their deposit rates -- to a historic low of 9.0% is effective Wednesday. Other key rates, such as the one-day repurchase rate on central bank loans, were also cut. Russia has cut rates by four percentage points since April.

The ruble has strengthened around 27% against the dollar since hitting its weakest level at 36.36 rubles in February, pushed higher by rising oil prices and a flood of speculative capital seeking to take advantage of Russian interest rates, which are several times higher than those found in Group of Seven countries.

Still, the widely-expected rate cut Tuesday did nothing to shift the ruble rate through the rest of the day. By 1535 GMT, the dollar was holding steady at 28.870 rubles, well within its range of recent days. Similarly, the euro was little changed at 43.152 rubles.

Analysts said the latest cuts will do little to keep market participants away from the ruble. "Interest rates are high no matter how you slice it," said Metropol's Mark Rubinstein. "The carry trade is still going to attract investors." In a carry trade, an investor borrows in currencies that are expected to have low interest rates over the medium term to buy currencies that are expected to have higher interest rates.

The central bank has tried to head off the ruble's appreciation by buying more than $16 billion of foreign currency in October and the first half of November and cutting the refinancing rate nine times since April.

But the measures have done little to stop the ruble, which has risen by around 10% against the dollar since September, leading the central bank to hint at other strategies, including limiting foreign borrowing by state-owned companies and imposing a tax on cross-border currency transactions.

The rate cuts have done equally little to stimulate bank lending, which ground to a halt as Russia was hit with its first recession in a decade. Central-bank data show that loans to corporations fell by 0.7% in September from August, while loans to consumers shrank by 1.1% in the same period.