From the Liveblog of
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Russian stock market partially resumes trading after a month
The Russian stock market resumes limited trading under heavy restrictions almost one month after prices plunged and the market was shut down following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trading of a limited number of stocks including energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft took place under curbs that are meant to prevent a repeat of the massive selloff that took place February 24 in anticipation of Western economic sanctions. Foreigners cannot sell and traders are barred from short selling, or betting prices will fall.
The benchmark MOEX index gained 8% in the first minutes of trading.
The reopening of stock trading on the Moscow Exchange has little impact on investors outside Russia. Its market capitalization is a fraction of that of major Western or Asian markets.
Foreign investment managers lost one reason to buy Russian stocks after MSCI Inc. declared the market to be “uninvestable” following the Feb. 24 invasion and removed it from global indexes.
