La Ukrainian crisis, with Russia having effectively taken control of Crimea, brings panic to the financial markets. At the start of the session Business Square (which restarted from the highs of 2011) came to lose 2,35%, and then filed the losses in the first trades up to -1,8%. In the same minutes the other European Stock Exchanges are also traveling in the red: around 9 Frankfurt loses 2,5%, London 1,45% and Paris 1,78%.
Closing down too Tokyo: the main Nikkei index lost 1,27%, to 14.652,23 points, on its lows for ten days, but still recovering after it had dropped up to 2,68% in the first part of the session. It weighs too Chinese manufacturing production, which recorded the sharpest contraction in the last seven months in February, with the definitive index published by HSBC slipping to 48,5 points from 49,5 in January. In contrast to the price list of Hong Kong, which gains 1,08%, followed by Shanghai, an increase of 0,59%.
To suffer the heaviest backlash is however the Moscow Stock Exchange, where the main Micex list drops more than eight percentage points, thus starting what could be the worst day since February 2009. Among the most affected shares are those of Gazprom, down by about twelve percentage points.
On the foreign exchange market, the Russian currency collapses to new all-time lows and bears the euro to cross the symbolic threshold of 50 rubles for the first time, while the dollar climbs one step from 37, surpassing the record of 2009. In this scenario, the Central Bank of Russia has announced an unexpected hike in its key rate to 7%, from the previous 5,5%, due to the emergence of "risks to inflation and financial stability".
THEeuro it weakened against other currencies, changing hands to 1,3786 dollars, while the Swiss franc strengthened, rising to 1,2108 against the euro, and the yen (139,83 euros), considered safe haven assets. The same aversion to risk pushes gold up on Asian markets: the yellow metal shares 1.344,87 dollars in Asia, with a jump of 1,4%. The same goes for oil: on the Asian markets, light crude futures rise by 1,50 dollars to 104,09, after a 5-month top at 104,65 dollars, and Brent futures rise by 2,07 dollars to 111,14 dollars.
As for the BTP-Bund spread, stands at 190 basis points at the start, up from the 185 basis points recorded at the end of Friday. The yield of the ten-year BTP is 3,47%.
The worst titles in Piazza Affari are those of Unipolsai (-2,99%), Unicredit (-2,95%), Buzzi Unicem (-2,25%), Exor (-2,17%) And Azimut Holding (-1,98%). Bad too Understanding (-1,87%). The only stock going against the trend on the Ftse Mib is that of Banco Popolare (+1,5%), which confirmed the capital increase.
