The financial markets responded quickly to the military operations launched by Russia once morest Ukraine, as the Asian and Arab markets declined due to those operations, while Russia corrected the situation and announced the suspension of trading operations in its financial market following its index fell by more than 10%, but the Russian market soon declined by more than 30% with return of trades.
The Russian ruble fell to its lowest level ever once morest the dollar and the euro on Thursday, amid volatile trading. By 0720 GMT, the ruble was 8% weaker once morest the dollar at 87.55, and earlier hit a record low of 89.60. It lost 6.3% once morest the euro to trade at 97.51, recording 99.99 earlier.
The Russian Central Bank said today that it will take measures to ensure the stability of the ruble and markets.
Trades
After the decline of more than 10% for Russian shares, the Moscow Stock Exchange suspended trading, today, Thursday, as a precautionary measure, according to Archyde.com.
The exchange said, “Trading has been suspended in all markets. The appeal will be announced at a later time.”
With the return of trading, the Russian Stock Exchange witnessed a violent decline, as the RTS index fell by 33% to reach 821.47 points, while the broader Russian Stock Exchange MOEX index fell by 28.65% to reach 1587.03 points, and the Russian Stock Exchange index of major stocks fell by 30.51%. to 13,977.27 points.
The fear index, which measures the degree of anxiety in the Russian stock market “Russian volatility Index”, rose by 36% to 119.11 points.
Aviation
This comes at a time when air traffic was already affected following flights were canceled from Russia’s Rostov Airport, near Ukraine, and the European Aviation Safety Agency warned airlines of the danger of flying in the airspace of Ukraine.
Asian markets
Asian markets fell during Thursday’s trading, as the Japanese Nikkei index fell by 1.92% to 25,940.97 points, while the broader Topix index fell by 1.44% to 1,853.95 points.
China’s Hang Seng Index fell 3.23% to 22,895.83.
Middle East markets
In the Arab world, the UAE markets fell with the beginning of trading today, Thursday. The Abu Dhabi market index fell by 1% to 8,992.93 points.
The Dubai Financial Market also declined by 1.83% to 3,276.04 points.
In Kuwait, the main market index declined by 1.35% to 6,603.29 points, while the general market index declined by 0.83% to 7,597.11 points.
American response
US President Joe Biden vowed Thursday that “the world will hold Russia accountable” following Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “military operation” in Ukraine.
Biden will deliver a speech on the “consequences” that Russia will incur because of what he described as an “unprovoked attack”, according to what came in a statement in which he made it clear that he would meet, Thursday, with his counterparts in the Group of Seven.
Biden condemned what he described as an “unjustified attack” by Russia in Ukraine, following his Russian counterpart announced a “military operation” in defense of pro-Moscow separatists in its east.
“President Putin has chosen (to launch) a planned war that will cause catastrophic human suffering and loss,” Biden said in a statement.
“Russia is solely responsible for the death and destruction that will result from this attack,” he added.
