Trading suspended Russian stocks plunge

[Jaga]

Trading suspended on Russian bourse as stocks plunge

Trading was suspended on Russia's leading stock exchange Monday after shares plunged by more than 15 percent amid falling oil prices and fears over the global economy.


Trading was halted on MICEX at 1:35 p.m. (0935 GMT) for one hour. Shares fell by 15.4 percent to 781.8 points. The benchmark RTS index fell by 13.9 percent to 921.7 points, but continued to trade.

Mining firm Norilsk Nickel fell by 25 percent on MICEX, state-backed lender Sberbank by 16 percent and state-controlled oil major Rosneft by 17.4 percent.

In September, growing financial turmoil in the United States and tumbling oil prices sent the Russian stock markets into their biggest downward spiral since 1998. The MICEX lost 25 percent in just three days. Regulators have shut down the markets on several occasions in an effort to stem the decline, often to positive effect.

The RTS is now down 62 percent from its May peak.

www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/finance/10050208.asp?gid=244&sz=82784

[Jaga]

Russia's oil wealth no vaccine against global crisis

MOSCOW: No longer quite so flush from vast oil and gas wealth, Russia's economy is feeling the pinch from the global crisis and problems at home, pu
tting investors and small businesspeople on edge. While economic growth has surged upwards at rates of over seven percent in recent months, plunging stockmarkets and massive central bank intervention have told a different story, denting a feeling of immunity from wider trends.

"To be honest I think the American crisis, which seemed so far away, could affect Russia," said Yury, a computer programmer employed by a large mobile phone company, complaining that he had lost "all confidence in stock market instruments and the financial market."

"As a result of this crisis I've lost 300,000 rubles (8,400 euros/$11,600) - 40 percent of what I had managed to save in recent years," said the 37-year-old Muscovite, who asked that his surname be withheld.

The downbeat mood was expressed last week by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who said Russia had picked up an "infection" from the United States. Global financial turbulence has been accompanied by falling world oil prices, a factor particularly likely to concentrate minds in Russia given its position as a top world energy producer.

Russia's stockmarkets have plunged from one low to the next, partly affected by negative perceptions connected to August's war with Georgia. The benchmark RTS index lost 27 percent in September and is down 42 percent from the start of the war.

economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3564720,prtpage-1.cms