The stock market partially resumed on Thursday on the Moscow Stock Exchange after a month closed, a tightly controlled reopening due to the unprecedented imposition of sanctions by Western countries due to the offensive in Ukraine.
During this partial resumption, with only the shares of about thirty companies available, the Moex index, denominated in rubles, gained 10%, while the RTS index, in dollars, lost 4%.
On February 24, when Russian troops entered Ukraine, the stock market plummeted by 30% and $190 billion evaporated in one day. The Stock Exchange decided on 25 February to suspend most of its activities.
On Monday, the exchange began a progressive reopening, first resuming exchanges of government securities.
On Thursday, the actions of 33 groups were proposed, including major companies under international sanctions, such as the big banks Sberbank and VTB, and the gas giant Gazprom.
The authorities took steps to ensure that Thursday's resumption was not too rough and expected a favorable situation for raw materials. They also dedicated a significant amount of funds to support the market and banned transactions with foreign investors at first.
“Russia clearly indicated that it was going to devote government resources to artificially supporting the actions of companies on the stock exchange. This is not a real market or a lasting model, which only underlines Russian isolation,” said Deputy Director for National Security at the White House, Daleep Singh.
MOEX's last trading day was Friday, February 25, and has therefore been closed since February 28, four days after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
On that day, Russia dawned already knowing that the European Union (EU), the U.S. The US, Canada and other partners would exclude some Russian banks from the international interbank communication system SWIFT, an unprecedented blow to isolate the country from the global financial system.
Before the closing of the parquet, the stock market had plummeted by 45% and the main values were left over 58%.
(With information from AFP and EFE)
KEEP READING: