Russian stocks resume trading, dive 50% over Ukraine crisis

Russian stocks resume trading on Thursday after a near two-hour suspension amid the Ukraine crisis.

They plunged by more than 50 percent once the trading started on Moscow Exchange at 10:00 am (7:00 am GMT and 9:00 am EET). The exchange had halted trading after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced “a special military operation” against Ukraine.

As of 9:00 am GMT or 11:00 EET, the benchmark RTS index crashed as much as 50.05 percent to 612.69-level and MOEX Broad Market sank by 44.59 percent to 1,226.65. The exchange’s volatility index jumped as much as 35.10 percent.