Russia keeps stock market closed as traders brace for collapse Business

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It has now been a week since the shares last traded in Moscow, and it looks like the shutdown is about to continue.

The Moscow Stock Exchange will remain closed for the fifth time today, marking the longest market closure in the country’s history. Officials said there would be no negotiations until at least next Wednesday.

It comes as Russia’s central bank desperately tries to avert financial collapse following a wave of Western sanctions.

Russian companies listed in London lost 90% of their value before being suspended.

5 things to start your day

1) Financial armageddon looms as investors wait for ‘uninvestable’ Moscow stock market to reopen Analyst toasts Russian capital’s ‘death’ as ​​commercial hub on live TV

2) Ex-energy minister clings to company backed by sanctioned Russian oligarch Lord Barker is still executive chairman of EN+, the aluminum giant partly owned by Oleg Deripaska

3) Russian Lukoil breaks ranks by telling Putin to end the war in Ukraine Russia’s second largest oil company calls for ‘immediate end to armed conflict’

4) Bitcoin faces a day of reckoning as oligarchs rush to save their money West fears Russian oligarchs are avoiding sanctions by putting their money in digital coins

5) Russian planes and rockets risk being grounded by Lloyd’s of London ban The ban forces Russia to suspend space launches or do them without cover

What happened overnight

Asian stocks and the euro tumbled on Friday after news of a fire near a Ukrainian nuclear facility following fighting with Russian forces heightened investor fears of an escalating conflict and drives up oil prices.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan fell 1.6% to 585.5, the lowest level since November 2020, bringing year-to-date losses to 7%.

Stock markets across Asia were in a sea of ​​red, with Japan losing 2.5%, South Korea 1.1%, China 0.8% and Hong Kong 2.5%, while the Commodity-rich Australia lost 0.6%.

coming today

• Business : Hammerson, Morgan Advanced Materials (annual results)
• Economy: Building PMI (UK)retail (EU)non-agricultural payroll (WE)unemployment rate (WE)average hourly wage (WE)activity rate (WE)