EU Looks Set to Ban Trading in Russian Stocks: FT

The European Union is preparing to ban Europeans from buying any new bonds or stocks issued by Russia’s largest banks, as part of a new round of stricter sanctions that could be imposed later on Thursday, the Financial Times has reported.

The sanctions would be more far-reaching than the measures announced by the U.S. last week, which targeted only two Russian banks: Gazprombank RU:GZPR 0.00%  and Vnesheconombank.

The European Commission’s Foreign Affairs Council said earlier in the week it was working on targeted measures and considered taking action on access to capital markets. The council said the proposals would be presented on Thursday.

“The Council recalls the previous commitments by the European Council and remains ready to introduce without delay a package of further significant restrictive measures,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sanction details: The sanctions would forbid any European Union person from investing in debt, stocks or “similar financial instruments” with a maturity of more than 90 days and issued by state-owned Russian financial institutions, according to the document obtained by the Financial Times , Additionally, Russian banks would be banned from listing new securities on any European exchanges and would not be able to use EU stock markets to raise funds from non-Europeans.

Market reaction: Russia’s blue chip MICEX index  dropped 0.4% to 1,401.42 on Thursday. Banks weakened, with shares of VTB Bank  down 1.9% and Sberbank Rossia  off 1%.

Source: MarketWatch