On Sept. 16, Moscow’s largest stock exchange, MICEX, fell by a jaw-dropping 17.5 percent, the largest one-day loss in a decade, while the rival RTS exchange was down by 11.5 percent.
The free fall continued on Sept. 17, causing Russia’s stock market regulator to suspend trading on both exchanges. The Russian central bank pumped a record $14.1 billion into the financial system, while the Finance Ministry said it would provide $44.9 billion in short-term loans to the country’s biggest banks.
Compared with the gyrations in Moscow, the 5 percent declines in other global markets look pretty mild. What’s more, the collapse in Russia is not simply a knee-jerk response to bad news elsewhere. Well before this week’s chaos on Wall Street, the Russian stock market was imploding. Since the beginning of July, the RTS has lost 64 percent of its value, equivalent to some three-quarters of a trillion dollars.
The Ethereal Voice
Ethereal Land News
