Panic as Russian stock market falls by almost 20%
21:51 | 06/ 10/ 2008
MOSCOW, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian stock market gave in to
panic on Monday with the MICEX dropping 18.6% to 752 points and the RTS
falling by 19.1% to 866.39 points - the worst losses since the 1998 crash.
Russia's financial system has been affected by a global credit crunch
which started in the U.S. and quickly spread to Asia and Europe leading
to record losses on Russia's financial markets, rising interest rates
and a liquidity shortage.
Sergei Sheikov, managing director for corporate clients at the Olma
Company said: "Monday became one of the blackest days for most market
participants - for the first time since 2005 the RTS index closed below
the psychologically important benchmarks of 900 and 1,000 points."
Losses for many blue chip stocks exceeded 20% with Norilsk Nickel shares
worst hit as they plunged 30.2%. The losses forced the closure of the
MICEX, Russia largest index, and RTS three times on Monday.
Fears regarding the spread of financial crisis caused all world markets
to plunge, which contributed to Russia's market losses. Britain's FTSE
100 experienced its worst day since 1987 as stocks plunged 7.85% and
France's Cac 40 index fell 9.04%, and in the U.S. shares fell below the
10,000 point level for the first time in four years as they shed 4.65%.
