The stock market remains closed.
Russia’s central bank cautiously reopened bond trading on the Moscow exchange Monday for the first time since the country invaded Ukraine, with the price of Russia’s ruble-denominated government debt falling and sending borrowing costs higher. Stock trading remained closed, with no word on when it might reopen. The central bank bought bonds to support prices. The bank has imposed wide-ranging restrictions on financial transactions to try to stabilize markets and combat the severe fallout from Western sanctions that have sent the ruble sharply lower against the U.S. dollar and the euro. Ratings agencies have downgraded Russia’s bonds to “junk” status, and the head of the International Monetary Fund has said a default on government debt is no longer “an improbable event.” Russia’s finance ministry last week flirted with default by threatening to pay foreign holders of dollar bonds in massively devalued rubles before sending the money in dollars.
