With massive withdrawals and no central bank to come to its rescue, Sberbank Europe is defaulting.
Its London-listed stock is down 70%. The holding is owned in majority by the Russian government.
Also:
- The Russian stock exchange is closed today (probably in limit down). It went down 45% on Friday but retraced to -34%.
- The central bank has raised its rate from 9.5 to 20% and called Russian corporations to prop up the ruble.
- Japan is also freezing the Russian central bank‘s assets.
- Economists now expect Russia’s GDP to fall by at least 5%. JP Morgan ‘tentatively expects’ the next quarter to be down 20%.
- BP is canceling its Rosneft join venture. It will cost the firm $25bn in impairment and half its oil reserves. This is the largest sanction by corporates so far.
- The ruble opened down 20% on Monday but has retraced to -13%. It is now down ~35% from a month ago.
