Russian stock market resumes trading after being crushed by war

A woman stands in a currency exchange office in St Petersburg, Russia (AP)

The Russian stock market has resumed limited trading under heavy restrictions almost a month after prices plunged and the market was shut down following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Trading of a limited number of stocks, including in energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft, took place under curbs meant to prevent a repeat of the massive sell-off that took place on February 24 in anticipation of western economic sanctions.

Foreigners cannot sell and traders are barred from short selling or betting prices will fall.

People walk past a currency exchange office screen displaying the exchange rates of US dollar and euro to Russian roubles in Moscow’s downtown (AP)

The benchmark Moex index gained 8% in the first minutes of trading.

The reopening of stock trading on the Moscow Exchange has little impact on investors outside Russia.

Its market capitalisation is a fraction of that of major western or Asian markets.

Foreign investment managers lost one reason to buy Russian stocks after MSCI declared the market to be “uninvestable” following the invasion and removed it from global indexes.