Russia keeps the Moscow Stock Exchange closed for the third day due to fears of the collapse of its economy

The Bank of Russia announced this Wednesday that it will keep the Moscow Stock Exchange closed for the third consecutive day due to fears of a collapse of the main values ​​due to the strong economic sanctions imposed by the West due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The Bank of Russia decided not to resume trading on March 2, 2022 at the Moscow Stock Exchange in the stock market section” with some exceptions, he said in a statement.

The exceptions refer to direct orders with settlements in rubles, to derivatives – except derivatives market instruments in the currency pairs section -, to precious metals and to some futures contracts in closing positions, among others. .

The Central Bank of Russia will review its decision again on Thursday around 06:00 local time.

The Moscow Stock Exchange has been closed since last February 28, when Russia woke up knowing that the European Union, 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 world financial system.

The ruble then plunged in the Forex market by almost 30% against the dollar and the euro, a drop not seen since at least 1993 and 1994, respectively.

With the closure of the russian bag has been trying to avoid for three days a major bump like the one suffered by the MOEX index seven days ago in response to the announcement of Russia that he launched a military offensive against Ukraine and the first sanctions against the financial market and sovereign debt.

The Bag it then plummeted 45% and the main stocks fell more than 58%.

The Bank of Russia he hopes that, with the measures taken to stabilize the market, it will reassure Russian investors.

Among other measures, it has decided to allow banks affected by the sanctions to use their accumulated capital cushion to continue operating and has raised interest rates to 20%, while the Government ordered the use of up to 1 trillion rubles (US $ 10,018 million or 8,906 million euros) of the National Welfare Fund -which is nourished by oil revenues and is a kind of piggy bank for bad times-, for the purchase of shares in Russian companies.

With information from EFE