Good morning.
It’s now a week since shares were last trading in Moscow, and it seems the shutdown is set to continue.
The Moscow Exchange will remain closed for the fifth today, marking the longest market closure in the country’s history. Officials said there will be no trading until at least next Wednesday.
It comes as Russia’s central bank desperately attempts to stave off financial collapse in the wake of a wave of western sanctions.
Russian companies listed in London lost 90pc of their value before being suspended.
5 things to start your day
1) Financial armageddon looms as investors wait for Moscow’s ‘uninvestable’ stock market to reopen Analyst toasts “death” of the Russian capital as a trading hub on live television
2) Former energy minister clings on at company backed by sanctioned Russian oligarch Lord Barker is still executive chairman of EN+, the aluminium giant part-owned by Oleg Deripaska
3) Russia’s Lukoil breaks ranks by telling Putin to end war in Ukraine Russia’s second-largest oil company calls for “immediate cessation of the armed conflict”
4) Bitcoin faces day of reckoning as oligarchs race to rescue their cash The West fears Russian oligarchs will dodge sanctions by putting their money into digital coins
5) Russian planes and rockets risk being grounded by Lloyd’s of London ban Ban forces Russia to halt space launches or make them without cover
What happened overnight
Asian stocks and the euro slumped on Friday after news of a fire near a Ukraine nuclear facility following fighting with Russian forces heightened investor fears about the escalating conflict and sent oil prices higher.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan tumbled as much as 1.6pc to 585.5, the lowest level since November 2020, taking the year-to-date losses to 7pc.
Stock markets across Asia were in a sea of red, with Japan losing 2.5pc, South Korea 1.1pc, China 0.8pc and Hong Kong 2.5pc, while commodities-heavy Australia was down 0.6pc.
Coming up today
- Corporate: Hammerson, Morgan Advanced Materials (full-year results)
- Economics: Construction PMI (UK), retail sales (EU), nonfarm payrolls (US), unemployment rate (US), average hourly earnings (US), labour force participation rate (US)
