2/24/2022- 8:30 a.m.
Russian stock markets plunge $250bn to record lows
Russian assets plummeted approximately $259bn as stocks lost as much as 45%, marking their biggest ever retreat, while the ruble dropped to record lows to the US dollar and insuring Russian debt spiked to highest levels since 2009.
Strict sanctions threatened by the EU have prompted markets into freefall, and the Russian Central Bank into emergency action by offering $11.5bn last night in additional liquidity to banks in a repo auction.
Among the hardest hit were Russia’s biggest lender, Sberbank (-45%), and Gazprom (-39%), while Bloomberg data predicts the ruble will sink to 100 against the USD (86 at time of writing) by Q2.
