Russian Stocks Fell By $1.4 Billion In An Hour

Stocks fell after Trump's decision to cut his ultimatum to Putin.

The Russian stock market switched to a rapid drop in quotations after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he was The Moscow Times.

The Mosbirzh Index, which includes securities of four dozen major Russian companies, spiked to 2727.2 points from 2777.3 points after Trump's statements. In a little over an hour (from 14.55 to 16.08 Minsk), it lost 1.8%, or $1.4 billion in terms of capitalization.

As of 16.31 Moscow time, shares of Sber fell by 1.22%, Gazprom - by 2.77%, Lukoil - by 1.11%, Sovcomflot - by 2.24%.

Mechel lost almost 3% in price, Novatek lost 3.2%, and Aeroflot, which on Monday faced an unprecedented hacker attack that paralyzed the company's work, led to the cancellation of more than 100 flights, and provoked a new aviation collapse at the capital's Sheremetyevo airport, fell 4%.

The ruble exchange rate accelerated the fall: the yuan appreciates by almost 2%, to 11.27 rubles; the dollar exchange rate on forex adds 2.1%, and trades at 81.05 rubles.

After demanding on July 14 that Putin call a ceasefire in Ukraine within 50 days, Trump said on Monday he was "very disappointed" with the Russian president, who instead of peace talks has thrown the army into a new offensive and, according to Reuters sources, is preparing for a battle for Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Kharkiv.

"We thought we had settled this many times. And then President Putin comes out and starts firing missiles at some city, like Kiev, and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or somewhere. Bodies are lying all over the street. You can't do that," Trump said at a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Later, Trump clarified that Putin's new deadline is 10-12 days. After it expires, the US could impose 100 percent duties on countries that buy Russian oil to cut Russia out of the global market for "black gold," which provides the Kremlin with one in four rubles of budget revenues and nearly half of the economy's total foreign exchange earnings.

According to a bill that the US Senate has already begun considering, China, India and Turkey, which buy nearly all of Russia's oil exports, could fall under Trump's tariffs.

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