Trading suspended on Russian stock exhanges
Russian authorities yesterday suspended trading on both the MICEX and RTS stock exchanges. The suspension was the second in two days.
The step was unprecedented in the history of the mordern Russian trading system. The suspensions were made midday Wednesday until further notice. The financial authorities stepped in after the country’s top two banks lost one-fifth of their value in an hour.
The Federal Service for Financial Markets called a halt on the RTS at 12:01 p.m., after the index had lost 7.6 percent in just over an hour. The MICEX was closed at 12:10 p.m., after it plummeted as much as 16.8 percent, according to Bloomberg data.
The government regulator must halt trading if either of the indexes falls by more than 10 percent, according to financial market regulations, the Moscow Times reports.
The suspension was the second in two days and came after the MICEX fell a record 17.5 percent on Tuesday.
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